ETHNOLOGY. 441 



into general use, as all yet discovered were new, and none liave been 

 found isol£tted, as we find specimens of all other objects of stone used by 

 the people, who we feel certain also made and deposited the disks. 



The most rational theory in explanation of the disks in the mound at 

 Clark's Work is, that they were deposited there in obedience to some 

 superstitious or religious idea ; especially when viewed in connection 

 with the strange contents of the other mounds in the same inolosure. 

 But why similar disks, which we have the best reasons to believe were 

 from the same locality and made by the same people, should be trans- 

 ported to the banks of the Illinois Eiver, and there receive final entomb- 

 ment, is not so easy of interpretation. 



Until further research has thrown additional light upon the origin 

 and design of these curious flints, they are entitled to be ranked among 

 the most interesting and problematical of aboriginal stone implements. 



AXCIEM MICA MIXES U KORTH CAROLINA. 



By C. D. Smith, of FranUin, X. C. 



Among the remains found in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, 

 mica has been mentioned. "While some of it was perhaps used for 

 ornamental purposes and as mirrors, it is a probable conjecture that 

 it was largely used in the religious rites of the mound-building race. 

 That found over the faces, or breasts, or over the whole skeletons had, 

 no doubt, attached to it something sacred in the minds of the race. 

 The supposition that much of the mica found in those ancient mounds 

 was employed in the religious ceremonies of the race, suggests the high 

 value placed upon it, and the immense labor employed in procuring it, 

 as well as the great distance to which it was transported, sustain the 

 idea that there was more than an economical or commercial value 

 attached to it. 



Prof. Charles Ran suggests that the mica found in the western mounds 

 was probably obtained along the southern spurs of the Alleghanies. 

 This is, I have no doubt, correct. For here we have ancient diggings 

 which were open excavations. Some of these excavations are of large 

 proportions, and must have employed a large force and a series of years 

 in their accomplishment. I have not seen the slightest trace of mining 

 work for any metallic substance or ore. There are a great number of 

 these ancient excavations, and they were evidently all made in mining 

 for mica, with the exception of a few made in soapstone beds, where the 

 aborigines no doubt obtained the material for their stone pots. The 

 largest of the excavations in steatite which I have seen are in Tallapoosa 

 County, Alabama. There are several ancient mica diggings in Mitchell 

 County, North Carolina. Gen. T. L. Clingman, some twenty-five or thirty 

 years ago, supposing that these old diggings were the work of De Soto 

 in search for silver, had one of the old pits opened, and instead of finding 



