864 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



doned ; stumps and trunks decaying on every hand point to trees still 

 older. Timber will not increase in size nearly so fast on this stony 

 ground as it will under more favorable conditions, so that centuries, pos- 

 siblj^, have ijassed away since any work of this sort has been done here. 



How these ancients knew where to find the best flint for their pur- 

 poses, unless indeed these sites were chosen at random, cannot be told. 

 It also remains a question as to how the flint was quarried after its Jo- 

 cation was determined. No doubt a thorough examination of some of 

 these pits will throw much light upon the methods in use among them 

 for obtaining the raw material. 



In Coshocton County, near Warsaw, are some similar pits which have 

 been opened by residents of the locality. In them were found two lay- 

 ers of flint, the upper a dark variety, the lower a clear, translucent 

 kind, which answers to the description of chalcedony. This lower flint 

 seems to have been the kind sought. Traces of fire were plainly visi- 

 ble in the pits, from which the inference is natural that fires were built 

 upon the rock, and that, while heated, water was thrown on it. The 

 stone could thus be broken into pieces. In the bottom of the pits were 

 found bowlders of granite, syenite, and other glacial rock, which plainly 

 showed that they had been used as hammers. No doubt a similar plan 

 was followed at the ridge, and such a supposition is supported by the 

 fact that these hammers, weighing sometimes 40 j^ounds, are found in 

 the ^elds around the pits. Although the glacier did not cover any part 

 of the ridge, the western line of Franklin Township coincides very closely 

 with its limit; besides which the Licking River, which is not more than 

 3 miles distant in some parts, carries down glacial material in the ice 

 every winter, so there would have been nothing difiicult in finding abun- 

 dant material for tools; in fact, the pebbles of which the smaller ham- 

 mers could have been made are found several miles south and east of 

 the glacier limits, even on high ground, having been carried there by 

 floods or floating ice at the end of that period. 



The hammers are found in greatest abundance wherever other signs 

 exist of an ancient "work-shop," or place where the flint was dressed. 



Of these work-shops there are two sorts, which are generally distinct, 

 though sometimes the two sorts of work were carried on in one place. 



One may be designated as the ''blocking-out" shops, the other as the 

 "finishing" shops. 



At the first kind, which are always near the pits, it seems the flint 

 blocks were brought to a size and shape convenient for dressing into 

 such implements as were desired. In them are always found the larg- 

 est hammers, though smaller ones are sometimes picked up as well. 

 Scattered thickly over the ground are angular fragments of flint, such 

 as would result from knocking ofl' corners and projections from the 

 large pieces taken out of the pits, and also from breaking them up into 

 smaller pieces, it being unlikely that a block of such brittle material 

 could be broken up without much waste resulting. 



