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
depth by an artificial trench, was so avoided by him that it does not
furnish the least memento of his presence. One vertical slice of the
gravels twelve feet thick does not yield even a broken stone, while
another slice not probably one-half as thick, cut obliquely through
the gravels near by, has furnished subject-matter for numerous books
and substantiation for a brace of theories. That no natural line of
demarcation between the two section lines is possible, is shown by
the fact that the formations are continuous, and that the deposits
indicate a constant shifting of lines and areas of accumulation;
thus it was impossible for any race to dwell continuously upon any
spot, line or plane. This is well shown in the section, Fig. 3, which
gives the relations of the art-producing section of Dr. Abbott to the
non-art-producing section of the sewer. The gravels were laid down
entirely irrespective of subsequent cutting, natural or artificial;
yet we are expected to believe that a so-called gravel man could have
resorted for a thousand years to the space _a_, leaving his half
shaped or incipient tools at all stages of the gravel building from
base to top, failing entirely to visit a neighboring space _b_, or to
leave there a single flake to reward the most faithful search. It is
much easier to believe that one man should err than that a guileless
race should thus conspire with a heartless nature to accomplish such
extraordinary results. The easier explanation of the whole matter is
that the objects found by Dr. Abbott were not really in the gravels,
but that they are Indian shop-refuse settled into the old talus
deposits of the bluff, and that his eager eyes, blinded by a prevailing
belief in a paleolithic man for all the world alike, failed to observe
with their wonted keenness and power.
[Illustration: =Fig. 3.= _a_, Reputed "implement" producing zone of the
river front. _b_, Barren zone of sewer.]
But this case does not stand alone. The first discoveries of supposed
gravel implements are said to have been made when the Pennsylvania
Railway opened a road bed through the creek terrace on the site of the
present station. At first numerous specimens of rudely flaked stones
were reported, and the locality became widely known to archeologists,
but the implement bearing portions of the gravels--and this is a most
significant fact--were limited in extent, and the deposit was soon
completely removed, the horizontal extension containing nothing. At
present there are excellent exposures of the full thickness of the
gravels at this point, but the most diligent search is vain, the only
result of days of examination being a deep conviction that these
gravels are and always were wholly barren of art.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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