Correspondence. 189 
\nScience Feb. 14, page 116, paragraph 4, this sentence is inserted: 
"More mature deliberation, based npon hand dredging and excavation 
made since my first visit (1870) only serves to confirm my opinion that 
they were fish-weirs." No such sentence was written in 1887. On the 
same page, fifth paragraph, there is the following: "The results so 
far seem to indicate that the ends of piles embedded in the mud, judg- 
ing from the implements and other debris scattered around them, had 
once served as supports to structures intended for fish-weirs. These 
in all probability projecting a few feet above the water, and were no 
doubt interlaced with wattles or vines to more readily bar the passage 
of fish into the river." In 1887 this sentence read as follows: "The 
results so far seem to indicate that the ends of the piles embedded 
in the mud, judging from the implements scattered around them, once 
supported shelters of early man, that were erected a few feet above the 
water, the upper portions of the piles having disappeared in the long 
lapse of time that must have ensued since they were placed there." 
Notice the phraseology : "Three different dwellings have been located, 
all that exist in the flats referred to." In Science it is, "Three differ- 
ent stations were located, probably all that exist in the bed of the 
creek referred to." In the same paragraph a sentence reads as follows, 
"The implements found in one of the stations are generally made of 
argillite, with a few of quartz and quartzite. Some were very rude in 
character, not unlike the paleoliths found by Dr. C. C. Abbott in the 
Trenton gravels." In 1887 the sentence read, "The implements found 
in two of the supposed river dwelling sites are very rude in type, and 
are genarally made of dense argillite, not unlike the paleoliths found 
by my friend Dr. C. C Abbott in the Trenton gravels." The next 
sentence reads in Science, "Objects of stone and pottery, rather better 
in finish than those at station A, have been found at the other stations, 
B and C." This read in 1887, "The character of the implements from 
the other and third supposed river dwelling on the Delaware marshes, 
indicating a greater antiquity than ordinary surface-found Indian 
relics." 
-The phraseology of these paragraphs and sentences is peculiar. 
Each sentence in the original letter, written in 1887 gives the impres- 
sion that Mr. Cresson had certainly found piles which lie thought 
once supported river dwellings. The sentences furnished to Science 
in Feb. 1890, give the impression that these piles were fish-weirs. 
Mr. Cresson is unwilling to bear the responsibility of his own state- 
ments, made two years and more ago, and charges the editor with"garb- 
ling," whereas the "atrocious garbling" is done by himself in 1890. 
The letter has stood in the Antiquarian, and no request for correction 
has been made. He says now, "I hope this letter, (the one in Science) 
giving a brief resume of the finds at Naaman's creek mouth will cause 
all absurd romancing in regard to pile dwellers on the Delaware to 
cease. If they ever did exist I have certainly failed to find any traces 
of such a people, and never upheld any such nonsensical theories." 
