Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology11893univ).pdf/168

admit the possibility of such deception. I have examined the specimen, now in the Peabody Museum, and find it to be identical in every essential feature with typical rejects of the modern blade-maker, lacking the least indication of specialization. It is not safe to call it an implement, no matter what its age, and to present it as evidence of paleolithic culture is little short of folly.

The discovery of a number of ancient hearths on the banks of Little Miami river was announced several years ago, and may be referred to in this place, since they were associated with deposits of ancient-appearing gravel. Professor Putnam gives the following information in regard to them: An exploring party "discovered five ancient hearths half a mile down the river from the Turner group of earthworks. These hearths were exposed by the river cutting away its bank. The lowest of the five...is thirteen feet below the surface of the bottom land, and rests upon a layer of gravel seven inches thick, upon which rest ten feet of alluvial deposit. This is by far the lowest and most ancient of the many hearths which from time to time have been exposed by the action of the river, as first noticed several years ago by Dr. C. L. Metz, who has examined a number of these ancient fire-places, and on one found fragments of pottery, which he sent to the Museum last year. These hearths are made of small boulders, in each case covering an area of several square feet. These stones are burnt, and many are splintered by heat. Upon the stones forming this oldest hearth was a considerable quantity of ashes and charcoal, but no other evidence of the work of man. These hearths furnish evidence of the occupation of the bottom land at different intervals during the formation of this deep deposit, filling the valley for miles in extent. That in this lowest hearth we have a considerable antiquity is self-evident; but how long after the formation of the glacial moraine, from which the gravel overlying it was derived, will only be determined by a careful study of the geology of the whole valley.^[1]