Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology11893univ).pdf/169

In 1891 I visited this site with Mr. Frank Leverett. Traces of the fire-marked stones were found, but the waters had removed the hearths previously observed. A critical examination of the sedimentary deposits leaves the impression that they are quite modern. The upper surface is but little above the present flood plain, and has the appearance of a modern alluvial deposit of black, loamy earth, including thin irregular layers of fine gravels. I see no reason, considering the facility of mutation characterizing such deposits, why the hearths may not have belonged to the occupants of the site of the noted Turner group of mounds near by. It is seen from Professor Putnam's report that there were many hearths in and beneath these works. "An examination was also made of the surrounding embankment of the work, and much to our surprise portions of it were found to cover large areas of burnt stones. Several of these old fireplaces were explored inch by inch with the trowel, and in the ashes and among the charcoal were found numerous pieces of the bones of various animals, many potsherds, flint chips, broken and perfect implements, ornaments of several kinds, pieces of mica, etc., all similar to what has been found in previous years at other places in this interesting group of earthworks."^[1] It may, I believe, be taken for granted that these hearths, notwithstanding their intimate relations with deposits of gravel, will never form any part of the evidence arrayed in support of an ice-age man or a paleolithic culture.

Another discovery, to which much attention has been given on account of its supposed bearing upon the paleolithic question, was made in 1889. Mr. W. C. Mills, of Newcomerstown, Tuscarawas county, Ohio, found a single specimen of chipped flint in an exposure of glacial gravel in that place. The specimen fell into the hands of Professor G. F. Wright, by whom it has been widely exhibited and published. A cut of it appeared in his "Man and the Glacial Period," from which work a brief extract may be given in this place. He states that Mr. Mills found this "finely shaped flint implement sixteen feet below the surface of the