Cresson.] 
142 
IDec. 19, 
the results of which will shortly be arranged and exhibited in the 
cases of the Peabody Museum. 
In studying the traces of early man that have been discovered 
in the lower Delaware Valley, a few hours’ journey southwest of 
the renowned Trenton gravels, so well known by the untiring la- 
bors of Dr. Charles C. Abbott, it is well at once to introduce you 
to the neighborhood called Naaman’s Creek, better known, however, 
at the present day as Claymont, a small hamlet lying just beyond 
Mason and Dixon’s line, in New Castle County, State of Delaware. 
In order that you may better understand the exact geographical 
position of Naaman’s Creek, around whose mouth and head-waters 
the earl} 7 people of the Delaware Valley evidently found attractive 
hunting-grounds, among the terraces and hills of the interior and 
the marshes of the river shore, it will be best to refer to the map. 
Taking New Jersey as a point well known to all, a glance in a 
southwesterly direction, for a short distance, brings the eye to Phil- 
adelphia, and about twenty-two miles farther on, the line between 
Delaware and Pennsylvania is somewhat conspicuous from the fact 
that instead of the usual straight dividing line between states, we 
have here a semicircle, that curves around from the Delaware River 
in a westerly, and then southerly direction, dividing Delaware from 
Pennsylvania and Maryland. The position of Claymont village may 
then be easily remembered, for it stands within rifle shot of the 
Delaware, directly alongside of the state line referred to. So much 
for the geography of the locality. 
Let me now say a few words upon the geological situation, mak- 
ing a few brief allusions to the Philadelphia red-gravel and brick- 
clay. 
Underlying the city of Philadelphia, and points west and south- 
west of it as well, are two distinct layers of gravel easily distin- 
guished from each other by their color : a dull yellow, and a brilliant 
red. Overlying the gravel deposit is a layer of boulder clay which, 
from its fictile adaptability, has been named the Philadelphia brick- 
clay. The oldest of these gravels just referred to, the yellow, does 
not concern us, from the fact that the fragments of coral and shell 
pebbles that are at times found in it suggest the probable debris 
of some old tertiary shore line. It cannot therefore have any con- 
nection with the far more recent conditions relating to the finds 
at Naaman’s Creek, except, that at this last-named place it under- 
lies the boulder clay or gravel in the same order that it does at 
