>* 
.a i/if, /F/f T 
/ * w y 
108 “ Turtle-Back ” Celts in District of Columbia. [February, 
admits that plants show a life as active, and a sensibility as great 
as do most animals. 1 Any disturbance of the conditions under 
which plants thrive are as fatal as the subversion of the relations 
upon which the lower animals and man himself depend for 
existence. 
In the investigation of this part of our subject, we must remem¬ 
ber that we cannot see exhibitions as great as in the more com¬ 
plex forms. Each plant, transitional or not, displays in the strug¬ 
gle for existence and the survival of its kind, a force, an influence 
almost as great and wonderful as is exhibited by mankind. And 
though standing above all this, as head and chief, man is too often 
forgetful of the relation he bears to the innocent weed that is in 
the pastures bred; too thoughtless, many times, of the vegetable 
on which he depends for his subsistence and being; too ignorant 
of the chain which leads from the lowest vegetable form, to the 
beauty and perfection of his manhood .—\To be continued .] 
-:o:- 
THE DISCOVERY OF “ TURTLE-BACK ” CELTS IN 
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
BY W. J. HOFFMAN, M.D. 
A LTHOUGH the rude stone implements forming the subject 
of this paper were not found under such circumstances as to 
assign to them the age that some have suggested, yet the term 
“ turtle-back ” is retained for the purpose of distinguishing them 
from the ordinary modern rude forms, and to illustrate their rela¬ 
tionship to some extent to the older and typical specimens 
described and figured by Dr. Abbott. 2 Before giving a descrip¬ 
tion of the implements, the locality of their discovery will be 
necessary. The surface thus far examined, covers an area of less 
than two acres in extent, and is situated oil the left or south bank 
of the eastern branch, in Uniontown, D. C., about an eighth of a 
mile above the bridge connecting that town with Washington 
city. From the branch southward, the surface gradually rises in 
elevation, and the region upon which the chief specimens were 
1 Loc. cit. 
2 Am. Nat., x, p. 331; Tenth Ann. Rep. Peabody Mus. Am. Archseol. and Ethnol. 
II, pt. 1, 1877. pp. 30-43, figs. 1-3; Eleventh Ann. Rep. Mus. Am. Archseol. and 
Ethnol. II.pt. 2, 1878, pp. 223-257, figs. 1-4. 
