1887.] 421 [Putnam. 



The President then, as a text for the discussion and papers for 

 the evening, showed a collection of palaeolithic implements from 

 America and Europe. 



The following is an abstract of his comments : — 



It falls to me to open the discussions which are to follow, by 

 calling your attention to the character of the objects known as pa- 

 laeolithic implements, or the weapons and tools of early man, which 

 have been found under similar geological conditions in many por- 

 tions of the world. For this purpose I have selected from the col- 

 lections in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology at Cambridge, a 

 comparative series of specimens from both sides of the Atlantic. 



Of the specimens before you, those from France were received 

 at the Museum in the famous Mortillet collection and are from the 

 gravel of the valley of the Somme, at Abbeville, where palaeolithic 

 implements were first discovered by M. Boucher de Perthes be- 

 tween the years 1840 and 1847, and at St. Acheul, where Dr. Rigol- 

 lot next found them in 1855. 



The single English specimen, brought in for comparison with 

 American forms, was given to the Museum by Mr. John Evans of 

 London, the author of the most thorough and important work ever 

 written upon stone implements. This rude implement he obtained 

 from Milford Hill, between the Avon and the Bourne, where many 

 palaeolithic implements have been found in the gravel, and were 

 first described by Dr. Blackmore in 1865. 



A large part of the American specimens on the table are from 

 the gravels at Trenton, New Jersey, in the Delaware valley, where, 

 in 1875, Dr. Abbott made the discovery of palaeolithic implements 

 in America. This place is of the same importance to American 

 archaeology that Abbeville is to European. 



The several quartz implements from Little Falls, Minnesota, 

 were collected by Miss Babbitt, the discoverer of palaeolithic im- 

 plements in the Upper Mississippi valley in 1879. 



The two specimens found in the gravels of the Little Miami val- 

 ley in Ohio, by Dr. Metz, the discoverer of palaeolithic implements 

 in Ohio, in 1885, are also on the table. 



Thus there is now spread before you a remarkable group of au- 

 thentic specimens of these implements of early man. 



As they are passed about for examination, I will call j^our atten- 

 tion to a few matters of particular interest in connection with the 

 forms which they present and the rocks of which they are made. 

 As you probably know, the large proportion of palaeolithic imple- 



