6l2 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



A STONE BATTLE-AXE. 



To the Editor of the Popular Science Monthly : 



I HEREIN give you the outlines of a 

 large-sized battle-axe, found in a thick 

 bed of drift on the elevated surface of Rose 

 or Cemetery Hill, Cumberland, Maryland. 

 This locality is situated on the first plateau 

 at the base of Will's Mountain, on the south 

 side of Will's Creek, and east side of the 

 mountain, and within the limits of the city 

 of Cumberland. 



The unassorted drift that spreads over 

 this plateau for miles, and which lies about 

 two hundred and fifty feet above the bed of 



A 



Fig. 1. A, pole ; B, blade. Length from A to 

 B. lu>\ inches ; thickness from C to J), 2% 

 inches. 



Will's Creek, varies in thickness from two 

 to ten, and in some places twenty feet, and 

 the point at which this implement of the 

 Paleolithic age was found is about five or 

 six feet beneath the original surface the 

 soil, gravel, sand, and water-worn bowlders 



having been carried over the declivity into 

 Will's Creek by rains or other means. 



This remarkably large relic of by-gone 

 ages has a very sharp edge, compared with 

 hundreds of the small Indian axes and 

 hatchets, so called, found in many parts 

 of this country. It weighs seven and a 

 half pounds, measures eight and a half 



Fig. 2. A, pole ; 2?, Wade, edsre very sharp from 

 mark to mark +, then thickens abruptly; 

 C C, thong-marks. 



The lithological character of this relic of the 

 Stone age is that of a dark-blue cherty, sili- 

 ceous and coralline limestone of the Pale- 

 ozoic aee, and, possibly, of an upper Silurian 

 stratum, as it very much resembles some of 

 those fossiliferous strata, and, in fact, pre- 

 sents on one side what very much resembles 

 a large (but not very distinct) polypnrium of 

 the fossil coral liche'nalia concentrica of Prof. 

 Hall's " Paleontology of New York," vol. ii., 

 Plate 37, A. 



inches around the sharp edge of the blade ; 

 it is ten and a half inches long, seven and 

 three-quarters inches across the widest part 

 of the blade ; is two and five-eighths inches 

 through from side to side, and tapers grad- 

 ually toward the pole to a sharp point, in a 



