The Journal of Geology, January-February 1893: A Semi-Quarterly Magazine of Geology and Related Sciences — John Shaqi
The Journal of Geology, January-February 1893: A Semi-Quarterly Magazine of Geology and Related SciencesVarious
Science
The Journal of Geology, January-February 1893: A Semi-Quarterly Magazine of Geology and Related Sciences
Various
Geology -- Periodicals
I made several visits to the place, descended frequently into the great
cut and examined the gravels and their contents with the utmost care,
but without securing a trace of art. Recognizing the vital importance
of utilizing to the fullest extent this opportunity of testing the
art-bearing nature of the gravels at this point, I resolved to
undertake a systematic study of the subject. Summoning my assistant,
Mr. William Dinwiddie, from his field of operations in the South, I had
him spend upwards of a month at the great trench, faithfully watching
the gravels as they were exposed. Mr. Dinwiddie had worked three years
under my personal direction, and had helped open upwards of twenty
trenches through similar gravel deposits, and was therefore well
qualified for the work. Prof. W. J. McGee, Prof. R. D. Salisbury, Dr.
Stewart Culin and Dr. Abbott also visited the place one or more times
each. Relics of art were found upon the surface and in such portions of
the talus as happened to be exposed, but nothing whatever was found in
the gravels in place, and the search was closed when it became fully
apparent that the case was hopeless.
It may be claimed that the conditions under which gravels are exposed
in trenching as it progresses, are not as favorable for the collection
of enclosed relics as where exposed by natural processes of weathering.
This is true in a certain measure, as specimens may be obscured by
the damp clinging sand which forms the matrix of the gravels. This,
however, would interfere but little with the discovery of large flaked
stones, such as we were led to expect in this place, and this slight
disadvantage in detecting shaped pieces in fresh exposures is more
than over-balanced by the treachery of weathered surfaces which often
give to intrusive objects the appearance of original inclusion. The
opportunity for studying the gravels in all their phases of bedding,
composition and contents, was really excellent, and no one could watch
the constantly renewed exposures hour after hour for a month without
forming a most decided notion as to the implement bearing qualities
of the formation. Not the trace of a flaked stone, or of a flake or
artificial fragment of any kind was found, and we closed the work
with the firm conviction that the gravels exposed by this trench were
absolutely barren of art. But Dr. Abbott claims to have found numerous
implements in the bluff face a few feet away and in the same gravels.
If this is true, the conditions of glacial occupation of this site
must have been indeed remarkable. It is implied that during the whole
period occupied by the melting of the ice sheet within the drainage of
the Delaware valley the hypothetical rude race lived on a particular
line or zone afterwards exposed by the river to the depth of 30 feet,
leaving his strange "tools" there by the hundreds, while another line
or zone, not more than forty feet away at most, exposed to the same
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