to the presence
of man at the close of the Glacial Age.

No doubt many similar discoveries have been made, but the specimens were
regarded as the work of Indians; and though the position in which they
wore found may have excited some surprise, they were not brought to the
attention of the scholars. Nor is it only in the prairie regions of
the West where such discoveries have been made. Col. C. C. Jones has
recorded the finding of some flint implements in the drift of the
Chattahooche River, which we think as conclusively proves the presence
of man in a far away time as do any of the discoveries in the river
gravels of Europe. It seems that gold exists in the sands of this river,
and the early settlers were quick to take advantage of it. They dug
canals in places to turn the river from its present channel--and others,
to reach some buried channel of former times. These sections passed down
to the hard slate rock, passing through the surface, and the underlying
drift, composed of sand, gravel, and bowlders. "During one of these
excavations, at a depth of nine feet below the surface, commingled
with the gravels and bowlders of the drift, and just above the rocky
substratum upon which the deposit rested, were found three [Paleolithic]
flint implements."<44>

He adds that, "in materials, manners of construction, and in general
appearance, so nearly do they resemble some of the rough, so-called
flint hatchets, belonging to the drift type, as described by M. Boucher
De Perthes, that they might very readily be mistaken, the one for the
other." "They are as emphatically drift implements, as any that have
appeared in the diluvial matrix of France." On the surface soil, above
the flints, are found the ordinary relics of the Indians. The works of
the Mound Builders are also to be seen. Judging from their position, the
Paleolithics must be greatly older than any of the surface remains. Many
centuries must go by to account for the formation of the vegetable soil
above them.

Speculating on their age, Mr. Jones eloquently says, "If we are ignorant
of the time when the Chattahooche first sought a highway to the Gulf;
if we know not the age of the artificial tumuli which still grace its
banks; if we are uncertain when the red Nomads who, in fear and wonder,
carried the burdens of the adventurous DeSoto, as he conducted his
followers through primeval forests, and, by the sides of their softly
mingling streams, first became dwellers he