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twice superficially plowed. The sand-streak was evidently put there to mark the precise point of the deposit.

Sixty years ago, when the first of the pioneers began to settle in the central parts of Ashland County, the northern section was a favorite resort of the Delawares and Wyandots as a hunting ground. About twenty-five rods southwest of the slough are the remains of an Indian village or camping-ground. Floors of broken bowlders and large pebbles were made by driving the pieces into the ground until a smooth surface was obtained. Ahout one hundred rods in a northeastern direction from the deposit is another "cat-swamp" or slough, somewhat smaller than the first, which will probably, upon examination, be found to contain other deposits. A few rods east of this were also found two stone floors, constructed of the same materials and in the same manner as the other. They were twelve or fifteen feet in circuit each, and had to be dug up before the ground could be plowed. About one mile southeast of this ancient village was a salt-spring, which was a common resort for the Indians and wild animals. Many relics have been dug and plowed up in its vicinity, among which was a large pair of elkhorns. Above this, on the flat, near the head branch of Black River, were several extensive beaver-dams. They were visible for many years after the settlement of that region.

In 1755-56, James Smith, when a captive among the Wyandots and Delawares, on his way to the Canesadooharie, in company with his adopted brother, Tontileaugo, passed this locality. He had traversed the Jerome Fork of Mohican to its source, about three miles from the head of the Canesadooharie, or Black River, and over the portage or divide between the streams running south to the Gulf of Mexico and north to Lake Erie. At that time there was a large Wyandot village near the falls, not a great distance from the present site of Elyria, in Lorain County. The Black River and its sources long furnished a hunting-resort for the Ohio tribes, and the locality where these implements were found was often a great encampment for the Indians.

There is a striking resemblance to each other in the implements found by Mr. Briggs. They are generally leaf or pear shaped. They are about three-eighths of an inch in thickness. The width of the largest is two and three-quarter inches, and its length three and one-quarter inches. The next largest is two and one-quarter inches wide, and four inches long, running to a sharp point. They are all quite sharp around the edge, and neatly and symmetrically chipped, and would answer for cutting-tools.

It is difficult to determine their use. They certainly were not used as arrow-heads, being destitute of nicks to attach them to the shaft. They are too small for agricultural instruments. They could not be used for preparing dug-out canoes, being sharp around their edges, and too fragile. They may have been used for skinning and cutting the flesh of animals. Possibly they were used in dressing deer-skins. The entire lot was new,

and looked as if they had been finished just prior to the deposit. So far as my observation extends, no flints of similar character have been found on the surface in this part of Ohio.

The material out of which these instruments were constructed is found in abundance about eighty miles south of the Black River, and is known as the "Flint Ridge," in Licking County, and consists, after exposure, of a reddish, mottled flint, and, when fresh from the quarry, of a bluish, or nearly black, color. The reddish tint may have origi nated from their burial beneath the bog or marsh water. When a boy, some thirty-five years since, I resided a short distance south of the main ridge, in Licking County. On the farm where I lived there had evidently been large numbers of arrow-heads manufactured, judging from the piles of fragments, broken arrows, and pieces of lances found on the surface. Many of these were composed of a bluish limestone, found in and north of the ridge, where numerous pits yet remain. When first quarried, the stone splits easily, and is soft, but, on exposure to the air and sun, changes color, and becomes extremely hard. There is also a fliut, or hornstone, found on or near the surface in that locality, which is of a dark color, sometimes streaked or mottled with white, from which large numbers of arrows have been manufactured, and are found scattered all over Ohio.

These implements were probably made by the earlier Indians of Ohio. It is not unlikely that they were carried there for immediate use. Their form, sharpness of fracture, and shape are so symmetrical and complete, that we are led to conclude they are finished. If they had been intended for further manipulation, their finish would have been less perfect. When Smith was on this stream in 1755, bark canoes were exclusively used by the Wyandots and Delawares.

Some of the spear-heads are very rare. Five were picked up near Ashland. I call them spear-heads, though it is uncertain for what purpose they were used. They are generally well finished, and have been used. Some of them are of an unknown flint. I have never seen the blueish kind in the "Flint Ridge" material. The first is intensely black; the second, of a brownish black; the third, on being fractured, presents. a blue color; the fourth is a drab, or sort of dirty white, and is very delicate in structure, and extremely sharp; the fifth, on being fractured, exhibits a blue color, and is peculiar in shape.

A singular instrument was picked up by Mr. Briggs in the neighborhood of the nest of flint-implements. It is made out of a sort of greenish-gray stone, variegated. It possesses a high polish, and the material is quite hard. A hole in the center is neatly drilled. It may have been suspended from the neck as an ornament.

THE AGE OF STONE, AND THE TROGLODYTES OF BRECKINRIDGE COUNTY, KENTUCKY.

BY R. S. ROBERTSON, OF FORT WAYNE, IND.

The remains of the stone-age are abundant on both sides of the Ohio River, proving that its shores were occupied by a very large population long anterior to the advent of the whites.

My attention having been attracted to reports of human remains found in a cavern or rock-shelter near Hardinsburgh, Ky., I visited the locality May 12, 1874, but was not early enough to forestall the vandalism nearly always displayed when such remains are discovered, and by which many valuable relics are destroyed, or scattered and lost. Nearly everything of value to the ethnologist had been dug out and carelessly destroyed, and out of thirty or more human skeletons of all sizes, from infants to adults, exhumed, I was informed that only one skull had been preserved, but as that is in the possession of Prof. N. S. Shaler, State geologist of Kentucky, we may expect to hear something of its characteristics.

Hardinsburgh, the county-seat of Breckinridge County, is eleven miles southeast of Cloverport, and in a hilly, broken country. About a mile and a half northeast of the town is a range of high hills, at the base of which runs Hardin's Creek, now nearly dry. These hills are capped by high limestone ledges, cut through in past ages by some powerful erosive agency, leaving the general course of the cliffs on an east and west line, but cut by lateral fissures and valleys. The rock has been so eroded as to leave overhanging shelters at several points, some of which are of considerable size. One, particularly, seems to have been occupied by man for a long period, and when it ceased to be used as a habitation, became the sepulchre of the remnant of its occupants, who were probably massacred and left in the ashes of their home, on the final extinction of their tribe. The cavern is open toward the south, the overhanging roof protecting the space below from any exposure to the elements from above, while immense masses of fallen rock make a wall from ten to twelve feet high, directly in front, between which and the rear wall of the cavern the deposit containing human remains was found. This deposit consists almost entirely of wood-ashes, so dry that clouds of dust arose while working in them, and we sank nearly to the knees at every step. The deposit is about eight by fifteen feet superficial measure, and was about seven feet in depth. In it, without order, were found thirty or more human skeletons, nearly all with a flat stone laid upon their heads. There were infants and adults promiscuously buried at various depths in the ashes, and at the bottom, on a layer of broken stones, some charred human remains were found. The bones had been thrown out and broken, so that none remained worthy of preservation; but from a description of the skulls found, I should think they were of a marked dolicho-cephalic type, with flat, receding foreheads.

Mingled with these remains many flint and other stone implements and weapons were found, with a few fragments of rude pottery, such as is commonly met with all over the country. I could learn of no ornaments, except some shells of the common muscle, perforated for suspension. Two perforated stones, of the kind supposed to be weaving-shuttles or thread-gauges, had been found, but carried away.

The polished and drilled ornamental stones found frequently in other localities seemed to be entirely absent here, indicating that these cavedwellers had not advanced beyond the strictly useful arts. I found in the ashes a number of arrow-heads, scrapers, and knives of dark flint, a stone hatchet, and a buckhorn handle for a poinard or knife, similar to the handles of some modern hunting-knives. These were all found in the ⚫ashes which had not been disturbed. Quantities of flint-chippings lie around, and a stone, on the surface of which are fourteen small circular depressions, disposed in two nearly parallel rows.

To the left of this large shelter, and under the continuation of the same roof, is another on a high shelf of rock, reached by climbing on the fallen rocks which form the front wall. It is large, but does not afford standing-room in more than half its area, but has been used, perhaps, as a sleeping-apartment, as the rocks by which you reach it are worn smooth.

Immediately in front is a steep descent of about one hundred and fifty feet to a brook, now dry, and, at a corresponding elevation on the opposite side, is another high cliff, perpendicular on its northern and overhanging on its southern face. Here many chippings of flint, some arrow-heads, and a flint knife were found, as if it had been used, also, either as a dwelling or workshop. It is not so large or so well sheltered as the other. My guide informed me of several other rock-shelters and of some stone-walled graves in the vicinity, which I had not time to visit. Although the flint used is easily worked, the articles found were all of ruder workmanship than those found at many other places.

In the road just outside of the town of Hardiusburgh I noticed a number of characters and figures cut in the surface of the flat rocks here exposed; some of them are partially obliterated by travel, but they still occupy a large space. As there are many smooth rock-surfaces exposed in the vicinity, and none other exhibited these marks, I had no hesitation in considering them to be the work of man, and afterward learned that it was called "Indian Rock." The tau, T, is frequently seen, while other marks are in the form of the Greek cross, with shorter arms above than below. Others, and these the most numerous, were a combination of the latter with other lines, X X, and some other characters I cannot now describe, having lost the drawing I made at the time.

At Cloverport I spent some time on the river-bank searching for remains, and was rewarded by finding a number of flint weapons with many chips or flakes, and, on the boys of the neighborhood becoming

aware of the objects of search, they brought me large numbers, many of them of interesting shape and workmanship. The bank here is a long, gravelly slope up from the water, above which are successive steps or benches of clay, bounded by a perpendicular wall of clay. It is on the uppermost bench of clay that nearly all the specimens, finished and unfinished, and the chippings, are found. Those found below this point invariably appeared to have been washed down.

The boys assured me that they could take me to a point across on the Indiana shore where I could get a wheelbarrow-load, but as I had neither time nor wheelbarrow, I was forced to forego the proposed visit. I have no doubt that thousands of specimens could be obtained by a visit to the landing-places on both sides of the river between Louisville and Evansville.

One specimen shown me, but which the owner refused to part with on account of some superstitious regard, considering it in the nature of a charm, was sixteen inches long and five broad, in shape nearly like a willow-leaf. It was a white, cherty limestone. I heard of a large stone pipe found two years ago, but after an active search where last seen no trace could be found of it. The children had been allowed to use it for a plaything, and it had thus been lost.

Returning to Louisville, during a stroll of perhaps a mile on the riverbank below the cement-works, and upon the same clay bench, I found several complete and many broken specimens of worked flints, and this where many people pass and repass every day.

On the whole, I conclude that the men of the stone-age who occupied the shores of the Ohio and dwelt in the caverns and rock-shelters of the interior, had not advanced to that stage of the arts which led men to give a beautiful finish to their weapons and to carve and perforate stones for ornament or for badges of authority, like the prehistoric men of many other localities, but contented themselves with such implements and weapons as the necessities of their wild life required, without spending much time in giving artistic touches to their manufactured articles.

ANTIQUITIES OF ISLE ROYALE, LAKE SUPERIOR.

BY A. C. DAVIS, OF DETROIT, MICH.

I send you three photographic views of a mass of copper found in clearing some ancient mine-pits on Isle Royale, Lake Superior. The mass was found in the bottom of a pit sixteen and a half feet deep, and was completely detached from the surrounding rocks. All the wings have been beaten off by the ancient miner with his stone hammers—evidences of which can be seen all over its upper surface. The section it was taken from is 27, 66 north, range 35 west. The belt of rock in which it was found is of a sedimentary character, highly metamorphosed,

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