434 DEPOSITS OF FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



a few instances before referring to certain extraordinary deposits of 

 rare and peculiar flints. 



A few years ago, at Bluff City, in Schuyler County, Illinois, some 

 hogs confined in a pen, at the foot of the bluffs, rooted out of the ground 

 a deposit of sixteen stone axes or celts, all of which bore marks of con- 

 siderable use. They were made of hard, compact diorite, and varied 

 in size from G to 16 inches in length and from 2 to 7 inches in width. 

 Considering the probable uses to which these tools had been applied, 

 and the location of the deposit, in a spur of the bluff near the (Illinois) 

 river, it was plain that here, in ages past, a canoe had been constructed. 

 The work completed, the tools were cached at the foot of the bluff, until 

 they should again be needed for similar work. 



The finest Indian mound in the State of Illinois is situated three 

 miles northeast of the town of Lebanon, in Saint Clair County, not far 

 from the western border of Looking-glass prairie. In shape it is a trun- 

 cated pyramid, or rather a parallelogram, measuring at its base 400 

 feet in length and 250 feet in width, and rises in perfect proportions to 

 the height of 50 feet. The angles are still sharp and well defined, and 

 the top level, comprising (approximately) an area of 80 by 150 feet, 

 which doubtless served as the base of some elaborate wooden structure. 



In the summer of 1843 the proprietor of the land, Mr. Baldwin, in 

 sinking a well near one corner of the mound, found, a few feet below 

 the surface, packed closely together, eighteen large flint spades. These 

 implements were broad flat pieces of white or grayish-white flint, 

 measuring, the smallest 9 inches in length by 5 inches in width ; the 

 largest, 15 inches by 7. They are nearly an inch in thickness in the 

 middle, neatly chipped to an edge all around, flat on one side and 

 slightly convex on the other. One end of each flint is broader than the 

 other, and the broad end is symmetrically rounded, and polished as 

 smooth as glass by long-continued use in sandy soil. The narrow end 

 is rough and not so neatly finished, showing no marks of wear, and was 

 in all probability, when the implement was in use, fastened in some 

 sort of handle. It cannot be doubted that these flints were in part the 

 tools used in making the mound ; and when the great work was finished, 

 they were stored away in the ground until again needed. 



Prof. Charles Eau, in the Smithsonian Annual Report for the 

 year 1868, (pp. 401-403,) gives an interesting account of a deposit of 

 agricultural flint implements and other objects found in the grading of 

 a street in East Saint Louis, Saint Clair County, Illinois. The speci- 

 mens from that deposit, as stated by Professor Rau, show no marks of 

 wear, and were probably never used, but constituted the stock in trade 

 of some enterprising artisan or trader who utilized the sand-bank for a 

 warehouse and place of safety for his merchandise. The same author, 

 in the Smithsonian Annual Report for 1872, (pp. 402-403,) describes a 

 deposit of hornstone disks, almost circular in shape, which were found 

 in the southeastern portion of the same county, in the summer of 1869. 



