174 Tin A tut rial ii Geologt8t. September, 1893 
unit heasterly to this continent across a land area in the present 
place of Bering sea. 
The Antiquity of Man in America. By W J McGee, 
Washington, I). ('. Although the author several times has 
found arrow or spear points or other objects of human manu- 
facture so apparently or possibly enclosed in undisturbed de- 
posits of Glacial age that some might have accepted them as 
proof of the existence of Glacial man, they have seemed to 
him in each instance more probably or quite surely to belong 
to later times. Decay of the roots of trees, burrows of ani- 
mals, and the falling down of talus slopes, may have permit- 
ted stone implements of modern age or fragments from their 
manufacture to become imbedded where they have been erro- 
neously supposed to be relics of men contemporaneous with the 
lee age. The recent observations of Mr. W. H. Holmes in New 
Jersey, Ohio and Minnesota bring grave doubt against the most 
important localities which before were believed to afford deci- 
sive evidences of Glacial man. For the determination of this 
question the author thinks that much better and more ample 
testimony is needed, and that for the present its decision 
must be held in suspense. 
An animated discussion followed the presentation of these 
papers. Prof. Van Hise inquired, Do the earliest stone frag- 
ments which are supposed to be artificially flaked show that 
they were designed for use? Do such flaked stones possess 
characters by which their relative antiquity can be known? 
Are there any means of determining the age of a stone im- 
plement or flaked fragment, excepting by the geologic posi- 
tion of its occurrence? and can any other testimony than 
that of an expert glacial geologist be relied upon? 
Mr. H. C. Mercer stated that most of the palaeolithic im- 
plements of the Somme valley gravels and of other European 
localities had been obtained by unskilled workmen, no larger 
proportion probably than in America having been found by 
specialists of archaeology and geology. 
Dr. H. C. Hovey remarked that much credit is due to Prof. 
Wright and others for their careful investigations of this 
subject, upon which we must continue to seek additional 
light. In Luray cave, far from the entrance, he found an ar- 
row head which seemed surely very ancient, but this is an 
