( 'nrrespon den ce. 1 2 5 
Mr. Carr, professor Putniun,aiid Dr. .Vl)l)()tt had reported findinjij their 
implements in nndistiirljed graveh all tell witiiin the limits of the 
glacial gravels, and had in no case been put outside of those limits. 
Now, Dr. Abbott's Jiouse is situated upon the older gravel ; but at the 
time of most of his discoveries he had not learned to distinguish the 
one gravel from the other. If these implements are all from the sur- 
face and had ])een commingled with lower strata by excavations, 
landslides, or windfalls, there is no reason why they should not have 
been found in the older gravels as well as in those of glacial age. There 
is here a coincidence which is strongly confirmatory of the correct- 
ness of our conclusion that there is no mistake in believing that the 
implements were originally deposited with the gravel where they 
were found. 
Mr. Holmes has not yet published his observations, but I know, in 
general, what they are. He has watched the digging of an extensive 
sewer, in Trenton, and has not himself found any implements; wliile 
many other persons have looked, more or less, for implements in situ 
and have not found tliem. But negative evidence of this sort will 
have slight weight in the presence of the abundant and minute posi- 
tive evidence adduced, especially in view of the varying experience 
which the same individual often has in such discoveries. For exam- 
ple, professor Putiuim found three of his implements in place in a 
single day. ''A long-continued search on several following days failed 
of success in finding other specimens in place, although several were 
obtained from the talus."' Furthermore, the general public has an 
exaggerated estimate of the frequency with which implements occur 
in these great gravel deposits. Even at Amiens. France, the casual 
visitor stands small chance of finding an implement in place; 
wlijle the practice there of sifting the gravel enables the workmen 
to find everything there is. The conditions under which the work is 
prosecuted at Trenton are not at all favorable for discovering every- 
thing which the gravel contains. 
As to ^Ir. Holmes' theory that all tiiese implements are " rejects" 
I think the error would be at once manifest to any one, upon inspect- 
ing the large collection at the Peabody Museum. But even if they 
are "rejects," if they are found in undisturbed strata of glacial age 
they are as good evidence of glacial man as perfect implements would 
be. Jiut the implement discovered at Xewcomerstown, Ohio (figured 
at p. "252 of my book, and of which I have given a full account in the 
proceedings of the Western Iteserve Historical Society of Cleveland. 
Ohio), has been seen by Mr. Holmes and i)ronounced as complete and 
perfect as could be desired; and this was found hfteen feet below the 
surface, where a railroad excavation was working into a glacial ter- 
race precisely like that at Trenton, and where there t-ould have been 
no previous disturbance of tlie soil. The discovery by Dr. ]\Iel/. 
(another of Prof. Putnam's most competent assistants), of a perfectly 
formed implement in the glacial terrace on the Little Miami, at ^fad- 
isonville, Ohio, is another well-(>stablish(Hl confirmation o1 the exist- 
