404 DEPOSIT OF AGRICULTURAL FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



and huUa. All have a decayed and chalky appearance. They were probably 

 obtained in the neighborhood, and obviously destined for ornamental 

 purposes. This may be inlen-ed from the fact that a number of the 

 ■))icIa»q)HS shells are pierced -with one hole in the lower part, (Fig. 3, 

 natural size,"! Avhich was sufficient for stringing them, as the connecting 

 thread could easily be passed through the natural aperture of the shell. 

 On close examination I found that these shells had been reduced, l)y 

 grinding, to greater thinness at the place of perforation, in order to 

 facilitate the process of piercing. 



The boulders, which forared a part of the deposit, were probably designated 

 for the manufacture of implements. A piece of one of the boulders was sent to 

 ine for examination. It is a compact diorite, the material of which many ground 

 articles of the North American Indians, such as tomahawks, chisels, pestles, &c., 

 are made. 



It would be useless to speculate on the antiquity of the ol)jects thus acciden- 

 tally discovered, for there are no indications for determining, even approximately, 

 the period when they were buried. It is far easier to account for the motives 

 which induced the owners of the tools and the other objects to dispose of them 

 in the manner described. Their object was, in all probability, to hide them. 

 Perhaps they left the place with a view to return and to take possession again 

 of their concealed property, but were prevented from can-ying out their intention. 

 Or, they may have buried them in time of- W'ar, when they were killed, driven 

 away, or led into captivity; and their " hidden treasure" lay undisturbed in the 

 ground, perhaps for centinies, until the spade of the li'ish laborer brought it to 

 light again. There is no room whatever for the supposition that this deposit 

 constituted one of those religious offerings by which the ancient inhabitants of 

 the Mississippi valley believed they could gratify or propitiate the powers that 

 ruled their destinies. 



Similar deposits of flint articles have repeatedl}' been discovered in the United 

 States,* and Messrs. Squier and Davis mention several instances of this kind in 

 their work entitled " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." The most 

 extensive accumulation described by them occurred in one of the so-called sacri- 

 ficial niomids of '' Clark's Work," on North Fork of Paint creek, lloss county, 

 Ohio. This mound contained, instead of the altar usually found in this class of 

 earth-structures, an enoimous number of Hint disks standing on their edges, and 

 arranged in two layers one above the other, at the bottom of the mound. The 

 whole extent of these layers has not been ascertained ; but an excavation six 

 feet long and four broad disclosed upwards of six hundred of those disks, rudely 

 blocked out of a superior kind of grayish striped flint. I had occasion to exam- 

 ine the specimens formerly in the,collection of Dr. Davis, and have now a num- 

 ber of them in my ow'n collection, which were sent to me from Ohio. They are 

 either roundish, oval, or heart-shaped, and of various sizes, but on an average 

 six inches long, four inches wide, and from three-quarters of an inch to an inch 

 in thickness. They weigh not far from two pounds each. These flint disks are 

 believed to have been buried as a religious ofl'ering, and the peculiar structure 

 of the mound which inclosed themt rather favors this view. The disks, how- 

 ever, represent no linished implements, but merely flat jiieccs, rudely chipped 

 around their edges, and ch'stined, in all probability, to be wrought into more 

 symmetrical forms. Thus it would rather seem that the contents of this mound 

 constituted a kind of depot or magazine, from which supidies of flint could be 

 drawn whenever there was a want of that material. Many of the disks imder 

 notice bear a striking resemblance to the flint " hatchets" discovered by Boucher 

 de Perthes and Dr. lligollot in the diluvial gravels of the valley of the Somme, 



* Also in Europe. Dep'isits of flint arrow-beads, for instance, were found in Scotland. — 

 Logan, ''The Scottish Gail." Loud., J 831., Vol. I, p. :539. 

 t Ancient Monuments, &c , p. 158 ; drawings of the disks on p. 214. 



