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argellite points is readily accounted for by the nature of the material. It was the only stone of the region well adapted to the manufacture of long blades or projectile points. Jasper, quartz and flint have such minute cleavage that, save in rare cases, small implements only could be made from them. Their peculiar manner of occurrence, described at so much length by Dr. Abbott,[1] has been given undue consideration and weight. The phenomena observed may all be accounted for as a result of the vicissitudes of aboriginal life and occupation within the last few hundred years as fully and satisfactorily as by jumping thousands of years backward into the unknown.
Whatsoever real support there may be for the "Eskimo" theory, either in the published or the unpublished evidence, it is apparent that under the present system of solitary and inexpert research, the scientific world will gain little that it can utilize without distrust and danger. Whatsoever may be the final outcome—which outcome is bound to be the truth—it is clear that there is little in the present evidence to warrant the separation of a "paleolithic" and an "Eskimo" period of art from that of the Indian.
That the art remains of the Trenton region are essentially a unit, having no natural separation into time, culture or stock groups, is easily susceptible of demonstration. I have already presented strong reasons for concluding that all the finds upon the Trenton sites are from the surface or from recent deposits, and that all may reasonably be assigned to the Indian. A find has recently been made which furnishes full and decisive evidence upon this point. At Point Pleasant, on the Delaware, some twenty-five miles above Trenton, there are outcrops of argillite, and here have been discovered recently the shop sites upon which this stone was worked. There are two features of these shops to which the closest attention must be given. The first is that they are manifestly modern; they are situated on the present flood plain of the Delaware, and but a few feet above average water level, the glacial terrace here being some forty or
- ↑ Abbott, C. C.Popular Science Monthly, Dec., 1889.