3G6 ETHNOLOGY. 



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 Eiver, and 

 is known as the " Flint Eidge," 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 evi- 

 dently 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 

 flint, orhornstoue, 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 scat- 

 tered all over Ohio. 



These implements were i^robably 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 neai* 

 Ashland. I call them spear-heads, though it is uncertain for what pur- 

 pose 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 neighbor- 

 hood of the nest of flint-implements. It is made out of a sort of green- 

 ish-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. 



