1890 .] 
51 
[Annual Meeting . 
the classic locality in France, of St. Aclieul, near Amiens, in the 
valley of the Somme. Two of them were given to me by Dr. John 
Evans, the eminent author of “ The Ancient Stone Implements of 
Great Britain the others I procured myself at St. Acheul, where 
I had come without any previous notice, and where I saw two sim- 
ilar implements taken from the gravel by laborers employed in sift- 
ing it for ballast. At the same time I procured one of the best ex- 
amples I have ever seen of the forgeries of similar implements, for 
which that locality has obtained an undesirable notoriety. This I 
have also brought here for comparison, together with a genuine 
specimen found by myself, in 1874, in a gravel-pit at Levallois, 
just outside of Paris. I have brought also two specimens from Eng- 
land, given to me by Dr. Evans, one from Wangford, on the Suf- 
folk side of the valley of the Little Ouse, the other from lower 
down the same valley, at Shrub Hill, Feltwell, Norfolk. 
It will be apparent upon careful examination and comparison that 
this implement from New Comerstown exhibits one of the recognized 
tests of genuineness applicable to such objects. As it is made of 
the black chert, occurring in the “ Lower Mercer” limestone of the 
vicinity, it does not possess the fine, compact grain of flint from the 
chalk, in France and England, but it plainly displays what Dr. Ev- 
ans describes as “ the glossiness of surface • • • which appears to 
be partly due to mechanical and partly to chemical causes” (p. 575) 
and which characterizes genuine flint implements found in the beds 
of river drift. All these European specimens, besides this glossi- 
ness, show a peculiar structural alteration of the surface, techni- 
cally known as the patina , due to the infiltration of water which 
has partially dissolved the substance of the flint. Although this 
is wanting in the New Comerstown specimen, it will readily be seen 
how different is its glossy appearance from the dull, lustreless hue 
which freshly broken flint exhibits, as is shown by the forgery from 
St. Acheul. It will be found also*that the genuine implements give 
to the touch a waxy or greasy sensation, differing sensibly from 
the raw feeling of the forgery. 
I desire, therefore, to express most emphatically my belief in the 
genuineness and age of this New Comerstown implement, as well 
as to call attention to the close resemblance in all particulars which 
it bears to these unquestioned palaeolithic implements of the Old 
World and to the additional light it sheds upon the question of the 
antiquity of man in North America. 
The following papers were read by title by Mr. S. H. Scudder, 
