abbott 1877

Upload: anth5334

Post on 10-Apr-2018

229 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    1/13

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    2/13

    1 HEREWITH report t e resu ts or my nvest gat ons n t e va eof the Delaware, made witl) reference to the occurrence of supposedpaleolithic implements ill the gravel beds facing that stream, basedupon a series of careful examinations of the deposits, in question,

    made at different points, together with a study of the surfaee soils,so far as these, of themselves, and by their contained. relics, bearupon the qnestion of the origin and clmracter of the specimens ofstone implements taken from tlte nnderlying gT:wels,

    The chunceOCCUl1'ence

    of single specimens of the ordinaryforms of Indian relics, at depths somewhat greater than they haveusually reached, even, in constantly cultivated soils, inducecl me,several years since, to carefnlly examine the underlying gravels,to determine if the common surface-found stone-implements ofIndian origin, were ever found therein; except, in such munnet'us might easily be explained, as in the case of deep burials, bythe uprooting of large trees, whereby an implement lying on thesurface or immediately below it, might fall into the gravel beneathand subsequently become bnried several feet in depth; and lastly,by the action of water, as where a stream, swollen by springfreshets cuts for it lf a new channel d carrying away f large

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    3/13

    petent judges to be unquestionably" chipped implements ." I uthis opinion, I concur. I find, on comparing a specimen of thesechipped stones with an aecidenta.lly fractured pebble, that thechipped surfaces of' the former all tend towards producing Itcutliug edge, and there is no portion of the stone detached whichdoes not add to the availability of the suppoSGd implement assuch i while in th e caSG of a pebble that has bGen accidentallybroken, there is necessarily all absence of design in the fracturing.Although the portions detached from a supposed s tone implementare chipped with refcrence to tl w natmal cleavage of the stone-with some few exceptions, an indnrated clay-slate', the b t h e r ' s p ~ c i -mellS being of phonoli tc, and other trap'pean rocl(, both of' 'Yhichoccur in place, hi the valley of th e Delaware, some thirty milesnorth of where these specirilens were found---these llirgei' surfaces, the rcsult s of, single cleavages, are supplemented by'minoi'~ h i p p i n g s along the edgcs, thus giving eyery indication of theoriginal zigzag edge having' been made comparatively straight bymore careful work subsequently pu t upon it. This, of course,does no t api)eat on a: natur ally fractured pebble. These llhaiacter.istic cLippings obtain i n the large jaspel" hoes and hatchets of the \Indians, and a comparison of these with the. TIldeI" forms fouriqin the gravel, 'shows that identical means have produ'ced the twoforms; the variance being only that which want of skill in flint.chipping will explain.

    TlJere exists, also, asiinilarity in the series of tbese SilppOSectin 1plements which wou1c1 scarcely: OCCur in the' case of naturallybrokeil pebbles, ;whatever' th e force brought to bea'r upon' them.They admit of classification 'into a' primitive' form,which I haveelsewhere ("American Ntlturalist,'? vol. x, p. 331) designated as ~ u turtle back" celt; and modifications of this form, into hatcliet;s p e l l r ~ a n d scraper. Now whil enatnral ly broken peb]j]es may oftenapproach in shape any of these fOl;ms' of stcirie-implements; itniayat ouc'e be seen that it is, in every case, but an accidental resem,blance. The outline is obtained, bu t not that subsequent chippingthat gives t he 'imp lemen t such fiuish as wonld make it desirablefOi' usc. The gravel bed, in which these "tilI'iJe back" celts andtheir modifications have been fonnd, cOlitains a small 'pei'centage ofangular pebbles, that have not lost all trace of the peculiat" sur.fnee a f' a recentfractll1'e, . ~ i r i d therefore are' not as smooth and uni.formly polished as a.n ordinary pebble. Such speCimens, when

    bea.ring.murked resemblance to' those clearly of artificial origin,may in fat::t have been fllsllioned by mall, nnc1 only jJartially lost,by the poJishiugaction of' water and sand, those i n d i c a ~ i o n s ofurtificia!1y:prodm:ed fnlCtures, such as

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    4/13

    33

    t!woecl grave] of the blnfl' facing the Delaware, ,It a depth 0[' sis:feet from the surface.

    I have purposely e r n p h a s i ~ e d the word" undisturbed," inasmnc!ias in all c[lsesof the findirlg of t!.Jese c.hipped implements, on theface of a bluff', it is necessary, as Prof. PUtDpelly !.Jas kindly

    } ' lG. 1..

    b.

    pointed ont to me, to determine that such specimcns Occur in tilegmvel as it exists when first exposed, lIud no t in a ialns tbat may}lave f'otluell at t!.Je oase of the blnff, and ill some cases extendedupwards, llenl'iy to the top j for in a talliS, it will be rendily seen,that a chipped implement mig-lIt lune very recently fallen from the

    'surface, and be now bnried several fect ii'om the face of the blnf[This possible OCcurrence has b:=cn dn]y cOllsidered in evcry in-stance, and 110 such displacement e1'jdently Iw.d tul,eu place, in

    REPORT PEAl.lOJ)Y M l ! ~ : ~ m ! , II. 3,

    Velt fl"om the g'r:wel; lZ. f;1CC; U, eide view. Nat. sb:e. uius. No. JlY.>OO.

    34

    the Instance of the specimen lJc;'e J]gnred, 01' in that of manyot!.Jers found by me, lJotlJbcfol'G and since. Specimens, identicalill every clUll'UctCrlsti.c fcatl1l'c with fig. 1, have !Joell frequently

    l'j:5. 2 ,(I,"D.

    Oelt from thu gravel; c; tace; b. sillc View. NuL, size. !\fns. ~ o . 1 0 D ~ 5 .

    fOCind il l the extcusi ve talus at. tile foot of th e blufl', and havebeen labelled as t1ms found, wheD. forwarded to .yOll, an d the pos.,

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    5/13

    35 36

    stbilityof their not. having been originally associatecl with. the.gravel . noted... But. a .talns, if carefully examined, will Sh01\;whether. it i s l i l ~ e l y to contain 111UCh.of thc soil proper. In the.casc of the bluff facing thc Delaware, there is a shallow deposit

    of light salldy soil, of about fifteen inches in depth, and then thegravel in a slightly stratified condition in some limited spots, bu'r,usuaJly iu the unassorted condition characteristic of glacial drift.In the talus which now Covers much of this bluff, there is nothingbu t the uniform mass of rounded and p-ngular pebbleSl, and withthcm such chipped implement s as the specimens here figured. Asalready pointed out, why shou1d this rccently displaced materialonly yield the rndest forms of chipped . stDne implemen ts, whenthe surface is literally covered, in somc places, with ordinaryIndian relies; no t a specimen of w_hich has, as yet, occulTed inthi8 gravel? Bu t the fact remains that in gravel, where no dis"placement has oecnrrec1, many of the well marked forms of u n ~

    questiouable stone implements have been fonnd.Figure 2, a, b, repr esen ts a more carefully ,Yronght specimen of

    thesc rude impl ements, measuring nearly five. inches in length, byII

    two and one-lJalf inchcs in average breadth; and less than two i,.inches in greatest thickness. I t is an excellent examl?le of that 'J"

    form that I lJave previously referred, to, as a "turtle-bfl,ck" celt.Of this specimen Mr. IVadsworth relllarks,"as far as can be toldfrom examining its externa l snrface, without any fl'esh fracture, Ishould consider it to be made of very compact argillite. I t ;:;howaweathering, and also a more recent fracture, which has weatheredto ~ O m e extent. .I should consider it yery doubtful i f this couldbe formed natu ral ly. " Thi s specimen, like the precec1ing, came

    from the bluff facing tl1e river. It was taken out from a newlyexposed surface, after making an excllYl\tionof fully three feetfrom the exposed face of the bluff; whic.hwas itself evidently theundisturbed gravel. ..

    Figure 3, IT, b, represents the spearbead-like implement.preYiouslyreferred to. The illustration shows at a glance, the artificial ori.gin of the specimen. It is made of flint, and is the only instance,as yGt, of the occurrence of a drift implement of this minel'a!.This speCimen was taken from the gravel, at a depth of six feetfrom the surfilce, On the site of the Lutheran Church, Broadstreet, Trenton, N. J. I t was found lying in situ,in a shallow8 ~ l ' a t l l m of coal'sepebhles, ancl clearly showed by its surroundings

    'Lhitth hactnot gottC'n in its ,position, where founCI, subsequ8ntlyto thedeposition o f tlJe containing layer' of pebbles.

    These three specimens clearly show thc general character of'the entire series of these g,'uvel bed implements; and tlJe carofut

    drawing'J. the artist renders further referenoe to them unneces"sary.

    Fig. o.a. b,

    ... speatpolntl'rom ihe,;ravel; ",face; b, side view; Nat. size, j\fU8, No. 10036,

    If the conelusions"ut which J. have 'alTi-ved,concerning ihe

    opecimens themselves, be correct, we are brought at once to themore difficult question; in. what manner andwlJen came theseatone-implements in this gravel? Ar e the,)' as old as tile containing bed,and.therefol'efashioned a ta time preceding and duringits deposition?

    Convincecl :that the specimens ar e all of' Ilrtificial origin , I haveendeavored to determine, if possible, how they came to be associ"ated with the gravel at such great depths; varying from five toover tw-enty feet below tlJe oycrlying soi!. Illy first impressionwas t!:lllt they must have woi'ked ~ l o w n . gradually from abOVe, yet I!loulcl.not .See ho\;this could take place, a ~ d there was 110t a truceof indication that the gravel had been at all disturbed sinco its

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    6/13

    37

    cleposilioo. Also, if lhl\se rune foru)s wero of identical originwith' camw"l1 llJrlillu l'elics, thell l'I1de (l.l1tl e l l ~ b o l ' a t e allite ; jfisper,( J 1 l ! l l ' t ~ 1 l J n l ' p h , Y ~ Y nnd slatl! togeth0r; axes, spears, pottory nnd

    l'Ilntl18nts, all 01' which ill'Cl fotllld upon the surface, s!lould havegrn

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    7/13

    [Hl

    tflO 1,'oSRilif"rl)T1s limestones, tu e Onoida conglomerate, I\lHl the',\'hole series ur Upper Sill1l'inn rocks, wh.iclJ are now scatter'H.1 allovc)' tlltl stille t:j\lite to CIlPO May." Jtl.sawherc, ~ p e u k i u g " or this'\Yeltr nne! 1Il0vement or elu'LlI: grtlvol and iJolllclers," the slunewriLm' rllmurks, "i n SOllie loci\.lities, Ils niong the highlnJl(ls frOIllBoonton tl) POlllpton, eyer)' 1101"(:1.1 in the !tl

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    8/13

    41

    :u:titieio.l

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    9/13

    43

    hicll I have caHall yom attentiou, together with the cleuuctions1 hflve cl1'llwJl.

    H :wilJg shown, ltS T clJink, thut the deposit> examil1ecJ is glaoiultlrin j Hnr] Uw.t the: slOTH: implements found therein could lJol; hlLVGrC:Jc!Jc(1 th,;,ir IJl'cscnL positiolL at; any lime subsequent to the for"mnLion of tbe deposit; I'.od having p}ucc

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    10/13

    37

    deposition. A1so, if these rude forms were of identical originwith' comJl1on Indian relics, then rude and elaborate alike; jasper,quartz, porphyry and slate together; axes, spears, pottery andornaments, all of which are found upon the snrface, should havegl'illlmdly gotten to thcse depths. Any disturb,mee that wouldbm y one, would inhumc alike the varions forms of neolithic im ..plem ents . SllCh, however, is not the case j aud this one fact is, Ithink, of iLself sulllcient to show that there is a distinction to bedrawn between these roughly elJipped implements and the skillfullywrought proclnctions of tIle Indians.

    I f 1 have now sncceeded in setting aside the sevel'lll objectionsthat may be urgcd in advance, of these snpposed implements no tbcing such, and, also, of there being lL comparatively recent addi ..tion to the containing bed; it is obvious that the same forces thatspread the gravel over the wide area that it now covers, carriedalso these productions of an early race, once inhabiting this conti.nent when its physical geogni,phy differed materially from thepresent. In this case, it may be askcd, ought not these implements

    to be distrihuted equally thronghollt t!Je area of the deposit. Ihave carefully considered this, and hoped to give a satisftLctoryreply by finding tuese same forms in widely separated 10clL!ities;bn 1, in this I have failed, unless the exception of a single rudespearhead be accepted as indicative of a comparatively wide distribution of these [Jideolithie Telics; Lhis single specimen beingtaken from gravel, SOlDe clis'tance from the river shore, a nd a milefrom tile bluff where the bulk of t.he collection was discovered. l

    It mllst be remembered, however, that the gravel generally, !Jasno t been systematically examined, and we do not know that thesesame impleme;nts are not abundant even elsewhere;; although thisI consider douutfnl, inasmuch as they were pl'obiLbly not as nu,

    merons originally ,as the stone implements of the Indians subseqnently were; and the majorit y woulel, I suppose, be broken andWOl'l1 to ordinary oval pcbbles, in the rubbing and grinding togethel'of these and other fragments of Tacks, while being transportedeither by ice Ol' water. 1311t may not the fact that the Indian relicsof the surface are no t abundant cveryw!Jcre be adduced as partially

    1 S i u ( ~ C Lbc above \vna in type, I 1:lave lJeen successful in (1iscoVE:l'ing scycral wellmarked spcdrnells) in mHny and \vitldyseparalt;d localHlcs, nnc1 am DOW leo ~ o helievetlJat they will u(: met wUh ill the ~ l ' , W e l bedti v;llcrcvcr occuniug in SOUUlCfll and Cen-trnl.N(;'l\' ,Jersey,

    38

    explanatory of the il'l'egular occurrence of the paleolithic implements of the gravel? 'iVe know Umt frequently many hundredsof acres in extent may bc carefnl ly search ed and Hot a fragme nteven of a relic be discovered j while near by, lL scanty area of halfan acre may yield hundreds of specimens. In times precedingthe formation of this gravel bed, now, in part, facing the DelawareRiver; there were donbtl ess, in the same way, 10c,Llities onoe thevillage sites of pre-glacial mall, where these rude stone implements';Vonld necessarily 1;e abundant. :May not the ice, in its onwardmarch, ga thering in bull, every loose fragment of rook and particleof soil, have held them loosely together, and, hundreds of milesfi'om their original site, left them in some one locality, such asLhis we have been considering j where the rivel' has again broughtto lighL, rude implements that characterize an almost primitivepeople?

    Bu t assuming that the varions stOlle implemcnts fas!Jionecl by ttst,rietly pre-glacial people have been t otally destroyed by the cmsh-illg forces of the glacier, an d that the specimens forwarded to yOll

    were not brought from a cUstance, may they not be referred tor; an eady race, th'Lt, driven southward by the encroaching ice, dwelt

    at the foot of the glader, and dnring their sojourn here theseimplements wei'e lost '

    You >,,'ill have noticed that I h a n uniformly spoken of thisgravel bed as One of glacial origin. I will now report to you, indetail, the more mUl'kecl characteristics of the deposit, upon whichI have based my conclusion that snch is its , ~ g e and origin. AttIl() point most carefully examined, the eastern bauk of the Dell'."ware River, at the head of tiCle water of that stream, this depositforms a bank varying from thirty to eigllty feet in thickness, meas,ul'ing from low-water mark upwarcl. To what addition,L! distancebeneath the bed of' the river the gmvel may reach,' I have notdetermined; that it lUay be many times this depth in places isvery probable. Prof. Cook mcntions, in t h e " Geology of NewJersey," page 311, t h a t " in the Azoic an d Paleozoic regions ofthe state, the denudation has been very extensive; bn t it is not soeasy to measure it s amonnt, as i.t is no t a.t all probable that the,3urface was smooth w!Jen the denudation, whose ll1axks we nowsee, was in progress. That it mnst h:we bcen "ery great we lJlaysafely infel' from th e imm ense quantity of material which ,,'e canIdentify from thc gneiss, the Potsdam sa.lldstono, t!Je Magllesiml

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    11/13

    39

    anel Ii'ossiliferolls limestoues,: tbe Onei da congiomera te, an d thewhole. seri es 01' Upper Silurian rocks, which are now scattered allover the state quite to Cape niay.". Elsewhere, speaking" ot' thiswear unel movement. of earth, gravel anel boulders," th e samewriter remarks, " in some localities, as along the higlJlauds fromBoonton to. Pompton, every nol,eh in the mountain has a hill ofdrift opposite to it, on the open plain to the sonth-east," and again,

    " the roundecl slll'ffiCe of the l'oc](s,in the highland, tile Paleozoicand the Trap ridges, the regular and parallel scratches upon thesesurfaces, and the deep furrows worn in the softer rocks, all provethat some more rigill force than that of water hus been in operationall over the connt ry, '. These eflects"ilS well as thecarrying of boulders point to ice as the efl'cetive agent in producingthe.m. Two sknl ls of the walrus, an animal living only in polal'seas, have been fonnel in the gravel neal' I,ong n l ' U n c h . ~ 'they.indicate a period oj' cold more severe than any that now prevails."

    . !nasmuch as th e drift deposits throngbout New Jersey, are thusascribed to the action of ice, and as Lhis that I have described, inflll respects accords wiLh the description of those above mentioned,

    the remarks of Proi'. Cook are equally !1pplicable to it. Le t meIlere mention, in passing, that the bank lies directly south-east oftile rocks in situ, and lJig'hlands of tb e Delaware Valley, downwhich a glacier doubtless moved j if indeed it wa s not a portionsimply of that great glacier Jhat cxtended "ii'om Ncw England totbe, Rocky Monutains jn and. here, or vei'y neal' this point, termi.qated in the Atlantic. I f so, we have in this extensive deposit ofgravel, sanJ, ajld bouldel's, a terminal moraine.

    ,Since the original draft of 111Y report, H1t8 written, I have prot:,ited by the e::xperience of Professors Sllaler and PUll1pelly, whobl\ye kindly visited t he principal localities, and examined themc ~ U ' e f u l l y . Both rCIl1f1rked on th e absene,e of ice scratches on tlJePebbles find boulders forming the deposit, and consider it as oneoriginally of glacial origin, bu t subsequently modified by waterfiction, wbercby more. or less strfltiJication lJas taken place. Inas ..m,ucll as such suqseqncnt action 111f1yhave occurred long after the,final (leposition of the gravel, as trl1e glaciaL drift , the antiqUity

    :}Prof. Sll1ocli:, Assistant State Geologist, lufol'me rne thut the gravel at Long 131'(1,nchi;. of the s:tme age na Lhnt llt (11n::nlon, so faJ: 'l8 one can uct,cl'l11ine. Nothing- as yet gOCfJto "indicute thut it ls of Ialer or earlier origin. It mllY be m C l l ~ i o n c d , too, in thifi.conpocotjoD1-that l'ollell fragments of reindeer horne l l ~ Y e occnsionully lJeen meL with in tbesosame gravels.

    40

    of the contai ned. stOlle imple ments is proportiouatelykssei1l3C1,an d may be wholly unconnected with the glacial p e r i o d , ~ l l t b o n g h th e latest possible date that can be assigned to the deposition ofth e gravel in its present condition, gives an :mtiquity to the implements found therein, far greater than can be asserted o f an ypreyiOllsly found traces of Il1lm in North Amcriea, othcr than thejiscoveriesof Prof. Whitney in California.

    I am not, 110wever, disposed to entirely dissociate th e gravelbeds more pUltic:ularly describ ed in'this report from the er a of thedose of the glacial epoch propel', fo!' the:: following reasons. If ,as th e general topography 01' . the country south and south-castof this bluff' indicates, this glacialdebl'is was deposited'in open,'vater, ou tb e bcd ot' a slmllow. sea. ' Th c entireabsenc(J of clayin the bluff' slJows tlJllt it has been washed out, as, the mass becamefreed f r ~ m the icc, an d floated ,off; the grav el and sand immedinte::ly sinking. 'While it ellnnot be shown that t.he ,gravel andboulders might lose their scratches before being. freed from theice, may it no t be that' the ordinary agitation or the waters of fishallow sea would polish the pebbles strewn over, its bed, amlthus

    the connectionofthe gravel in its present condition with th e gl:1,..del' be necessarily closc?' There can be nodonbt tlJat th e locality~ e r e ' treated of, l. 'e., South and Central New Jersey, marks :thetermination of thc"glllcier: on the Atlanti0 coast. TlJe debrisbrought from the ,north, and north-west was not, as far south 'usTrenton, caught by .the inequalities of the slll'J'ace, find valleyst h e r ~ b y f i l l e d up with accumulations of typieal glacial drift. IIIsucb cases, the material forming the deposit bears the marks ofth e crushing, scratching and, polishing action of th o iue.', 'This isit characteristic feature of. toe drift as seen in thenortlJem hilly~ o r t i o n ot' the state . . At, Trenton, and southward to Cape :i'.iay,this same glacial debris is frce from all sucll ice-scratches j but,

    it must be bome in mind, it was no t originally left upon the'sui.face of t,he gronnd, but, carried to the open watcrs, was gruduallydeposited by the slow mel Ling of the ice. Here, exposed tostrong CUlTents and more ,or, less violent beach acl:ion, aud, intimately associated with coarse slJarp sand, would' not th e tcnllencybe to obliterate uneven surfaces, and polish every pebble?

    III such a eaS8, iL woul

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    12/13

    41

    artificial origin. I Ilave already caneel atten tion to the possibilityof certain angular pebbles in tlle gravel, bearing much resemblanceto stone implements, hu.ving bcen such, al1C1 can only add thatthere does exist in the Trenton gravels sutnciellt instances ofil'regnhu-ly slwped pebbles, that are not polished or rounded upontheir edges, to indicate the possibility of tIle preservation of suchspecimens, as we have seen, do occur in the graVel beds in ques

    tion.In t J ~ i s connection, le t me ca n attent.ion also to the f a c ~ , that.the glacier was associated with a marked dcprcssion of the wholesouthern half of the statc. Thc month of the Deluwure, if,indeed, the ril'er then existed, was here at 'Trenton, and not, asnow, at CalJe nlay, one hundred and twenty miles distant. Sincethe retirement 01' the icc, [IS n glacier, tlle land has again beenelevated, and while slowly gaiJJing its pre sent height the .I)elaw:l1'cand other sont.hern flowing rivers of the stnte have WOl'l1 away thenllleys thcy now travers e and cut the channels they now occupy.

    Now, the fact that thesc supposed relics of Ii glncbl peopleoccm at different depths in the gravel must, too, be considered.

    'Ibis, of itself', seems conlirmative of the opinion that man elweltat the foot of the glacier, or at least wandcred ove1' the open sea,dnring the accnmnlation of this mass or sand and gravel. Thereis no evidence of any Yiolent overturning of the entire lllass I011gllbseqnent to the original deposition by the glacier, :md if the

    implements 'were made, used and lost ilf'ler the deposit ceasedforming, but prior to its elevation, then they would nec essarilj'occur only in or vel')' neal' the top or surface of the beet

    At that point where I have gathcred the majority of specimens,there is a want of stratification; bnt at several points, I have'fouml, extending over limited areas, a marked separation '01' th.ematerial generally, into fine sand, coarse gravel, and again finesand; sceming to show that the floods of the succeeding periodreassor ted thc de posi ts, in some few plae-cs, but that the deposit.generally was protected from tlJem.

    I have frequently 1'efel'l'ed to the presence of boulders, both inthe gravel bed and l1jJ011 thc surface of the gronnd. Many of theseHre eight and ten feet in diameter j some more than tll'ice this size.l\:Iineralogically they vary considerably. Prof. Geikie bas described as characteristic of all \'Ile river valleys in England, thattbe upper levels cOllsist of coarser material thaD. the lower, "aud

    42

    1j'equel1tly contain large blocks pf stone which could only havebeen transported by river-ice j" whilc the lower level gravels areusually of liner grained clmracter, and that the,w 1\ seemed topoint to n milder condition of t h ings - to a time wlJcn the riverswere less liable to lIood, and the ice-rafts were uncommon"CooGreat Ice Age," American Ed., p. 435). From an examinationof the bed as now exposed on the bank of the Delaware River, I do

    not find that !Illy snch distiuction can be hcre drawn. By act-llalcount, in a section I mcasured ofl', there did not occur more largeboulders above the line cqllally dividing the bluf!', than below it,bu t on the contrary three more bencath; not cOllnting those thatbad rolled from the Led down to the water's edge. This of' itselfwould be by no means conclusive; bnt I found, upon f'reCluentenquiry of lllen who had Slink wells lind excavated ce llars, thatthese boulders were usually met with in greater nbuudance, atconsidemble depths, tllan near the surface. This irregula rity oftheir occurrence and position is, I think, indicative of the glncialorigin of tile deposit. These large bonlders are also met withupon tllc snrJ'ace. I have very carefully examlued many of these,

    in situ, and am convinced that these were not deposited with thegravel beneath them, nnd that tl:\e latter has been subsequentlyremoved by rapidly running wnter, for I li.nd in nearly every instance, a foot or more of soil between the lower surface of thestone lmd the gravel, and this layer so extended Leyoncl the limi tsof the boulder, that it unquestionably WlIS slowly accumulatedprior to the depositing of the latter; and in snch a stratum, immediately beneath a stone that would weigh at least half a ton, Ifound a well chipped, spear-shaperl implemeut. Thes e surfaceboulc1ers I believe to have heen dropped from ice-rafts, togetherwith sand lind gravel; the ice then floating over a broad expans&of couutry, in comparatively quiet waters, from whicll slowly settIed the fine sand and other material that subsequeutly becamethe surface soil.

    The prcsence of these boulders upon the surface beat upon thefact of the OCCIUTcnce of I'l1de implements identical with thosefound iu the underlying gravels, inasmnch as the same icc-raftthat bore the one, with its accompmlying sand and gravel, might,well gather up also, stray relics of this primitive people, und reodeposit them, where they are now found.

    I will now, in conclusion, briefly summarize the several facts to

  • 8/8/2019 Abbott 1877

    13/13

    4

    wbieh I hn,ve c'l11ed YOUl' nttention, together with thE: deductionsI have drawn.

    Having shown, as I think, that the .deposit ilxamined is glacialdrin; and that the stone imp1ements found theleiu could no t havereached their present position at any time sllbsequent to the for ..

    mation of the deposit; and having placed beyond doubt, I think,ih e questioll as to whether these rudely chipped stones be of arti.ucial origin or not, by the discovery of nn unquestionable spearpoint fig. (3,) associated with them, I am led to conclude thatth e rude implements found in the gravel were fashioned. by mandUJ'ing the glacial period, and were deposited with the associatedgravels as we llOW find them.

    T h a t ~ h e . similar surface i'elics nuty also be. glacial in age,