Wadsworth.] 
146 
[January 19, 
was about three feet deep in the ground and one foot in from 
the perpendicular face of this newly exposed surface. He also 
stated that, although neither Dr. Abbott nor the officers of the 
Peabody Museum had any doubt as to the artificial character 
of these implements, yet he had recently submitted a series of 
them to leading archaeologists in London, Paris and Copenhagen, 
all of whom unhesitatingly confirmed their decision. 
Dr. M. E. Wadsworth having been requested by the Curator 
of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology to give some account of 
his observations on the specimens in the Peabody Museum said to 
have come from the Trenton (N. J.) gravels, remarked as 
follows : — 
Certain of these specimens were placed in my hands in 1876 
for examination, their lithological character then being unknown. 
They were found by macroscopic and microscopic examination 
to have been made from argillite, greatly indurated, and breaking 
with a conchoidal fracture. The specimens were weathered to 
a greater or less extent and showed plainly that the fractures 
must have been made long ago. A few small fractures of sec- 
ondary character occur. This secondary chipping evidently took 
place long after the original fracturing, but also long ago, as is 
shown by the weathering of the surfaces of both the primary 
and secondary fractures. The few secondary fractures are prob- 
ably natural, and could easily occur if subjected to the action Dr. 
Abbott supposes. The original chipping could not have taken 
place by any known natural causes acting upon rocks, so far as 
the writer has any knowledge. Of course it then brings us to 
the only agency that could do the work : man. The characters 
of the specimens, petrographically, bore out the statements made 
to me by Mr. Putnam, of the conditions under which they were 
found, whether upon the surface or in the gravels. I do not see 
how it is possible that such correspondence of characters could 
exist unless the specimens were found under the conditions 
reported. 
The lithological characters then show that the specimens are 
not natural forms; that being composed of a slow weathering 
rock, they must have been made long years ago; that many years 
