182 The Ainei'iCH)} (rroJtx/tst. March, ixila- 
the tubes which when ln'okeii showed a singuhvr irregularit}' in the 
penetration of the deca^'. I have had an excellent medallion of 
a European face tendered me with ample affidavits to prove that 
it was taken from compact upper Silurian beds in southern Ken- 
tucky, and in a more eastern locality a kindly farmer tried to sell 
me a swamp in which he was certain that 1 would And mammoth 
and other remains: he seemed, indeed, prepared to guarantee the 
importance of the prospective discoveries. By no means all of 
these helpful people seemed to be actuated by a desire for gain; 
many of them were clearly moved by a sincere wish to help a 
fellow to secure some pleasure in his way of life, and incidentally 
to see whether he was well informed as to the nature of living 
man. These negative and positive bits of evidence tended to- 
make me rather critical of all the discoveries which 1 have seen 
or heard of which appear at first sight to show that man was in 
the region east of the Mississippi antedates the close" of the last 
glacial epoch. 1 do not think, however, that I have been more 
of a skeptic than it is wholesome to be in such enquiries where 
above all else it is necessary to maintain a state of doubt, until 
the facts array themselves in a clear manner. While in this state 
of mind I saw the Trenton gravels where Dr. C V . Abbott has 
made his important researches. 
J)uring my examination of Dr. Abbott's localities, which was ver}' 
hurried, T saw only enough to convince me that the Trenton beds 
contained an abundance of chipped flints which have much the 
aspect of those which have been rudely shaped by human agency. 
At the same time I felt how difficult it was to account for their 
presence in the deposits if we supposed them to be the work of man. 
Tt was hardly reasonable to imagine that they were dropped into the 
water at the time when the beds were forming and to suppose that 
they were on the surface of the country whence the glacial waste 
came before the advent of the ice called for a yet more trying feat 
of the imagination. It was not difficult to find in New England 
deposits in history corresponding to the Trenton gravels and to 
these graded by Dr. Abbott's valuable discoveries and to these T 
addressed myself as opportunities were presented. I found readily 
enough that the sand plains of southern Rhode Island and southeast- 
ern Massachsetts deposits found on the seawardside of the mo- 
raines of the last ice epoch to which 1 have given the name of 
' • frontal aprons'here and there contained chipped pebbles which to 
