Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/47

 railroad had been for so many years obtaining ballast. The perpendicular face of this bank of gravel as it was exposed from time to time by the excavations of the railroad men was frequently examined by Mr. Mills, not with special reference to finding implements, for that thought had not entered his mind, but for the sake of obtaining specimens of coral, which occasionally occurred in the gravel. While engaged in one of these rounds, on the 27th of October, 1880, he found this specimen projecting from a fresh exposure of the perpendicular bank, fifteen feet below the surface, and, according to his custom, recorded the facts at the time in his note-book. There was no lack of discrimination in his observations, or of distinctness in his memory.

The accompanying illustration from a photograph taken six months after the discovery, and when a talus consequent upon the frosts of winter had accumulated to a considerable extent at



the base of the deposit, shows the spot in the bank from which the implement was taken. In looking for objects of his quest, Mr. Mills thrust in his cane into the coarser gravel which is seen to overlie the finer deposits. This resulted in detaching a large mass about six feet long and two feet wide, which fell down at his