Archæological history of Ohio : the mound builders and later Indians / by Gerard Fowke.
- Gerard Fowke
- Date:
- 1902
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Archæological history of Ohio : the mound builders and later Indians / by Gerard Fowke. Source: Wellcome Collection.
42/788 page 18
![Mr. Holmes in this case, as in the other, is that possibly the gravel in which the implements were found had been disturbed. In some cases, as in Little Falls and at Madisonville, he thinks the implements may have worked down to a depth of several feet by the overturning of trees or by the decay of the tap-root of trees. A sufficient answer to these suggestions is, that Mr. Holmes is able to find no instance in which the overturning of trees has disturbed the soil to a depth of more than three or four feet, while some of the implements in these places had been found buried from eight to sixteen feet. Even if, as Mr. Cham- berlin suggests, fifty generations of trees have decayed on the spot since the retreat of the ice, it is difficult to see how that would help the matter, since the effect could not be cumulative, and fifty upturnings of three or four feet would not produce tHe results of one upturning of eight feet. Moreover, at Trenton, where the upturning of trees and the decaying of tap-roots would have been as likely, as anywhere to bury implements, none of those of flint or jasper (which occur upon the sur- face by tens of thousands) are buried more than a foot in depth; while the argillite implements occur as low down as fifteen or twenty feet. “To discredit the discoveries at Trenton and Newcomerstown, Mr. Holmes relies largely upon the theor}'- that portions of gravel from the surface had slid down to the bottom of the terrace, carrying implements with them, and forming a talus, which, he thinks, Mr. Mills, Dr. Abbott, and the others have mistaken for undisturbed strata of gravel. In his drawings Mr. Holmes has even represented the gravel at Newcomers- town as caving down into a talus without disturbing the strata to any great extent, and at the same time he speaks slightingly of the promise which I had made to publish a photograph of the bank as it really was. In answer, it is sufficient to [refer], first, [to] the drawing made at the time by Mr. Mills, to show the general situation of the gravel bank at Newcomerstown, in which the implement * * * was found; and, secondly, [to] an engraving from a photograph of the bank, taken by Mr. Mills after the discovery of the implement, but before the talus had obscured its face. The implement was found by Mr. Mills with its point projecting from a fresh exposure of the terrace, just after a mass, loosened by his own efforts, had fallen away. The gravel is of such consistency that every sign of stratification disappears when it falls down, and there could be no occasion for a mistake even by an ordinary observer, while Mr. Mills was a well-trained geologist and collector, making his notes upon the spot.” — Wright, 2nd., XIII. Part of Mr. Holmes’ conclusions were based upon certain observations which are thus stated : — “At Warsaw, in Coshocton County, fifty miles west of New- comerstown, I visited an exposure of gravels in a railway cutting, the conditions being almost identical with those at Newcomerstown. The terrace, as in the other case, has been occupied by Indian flint workers, and being in the proximity of extensive flint quarries, there is much](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24849959_0042.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
