46 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 



naments and for sacrificial and mortuary purposes. It is stated on 

 good authority also that they were used as mirrors. 



Mr. Holmes visited a number of mines in the vicinity of Spruce- 

 tree and Bandana, Yancey County, and near Bakersville in Mitchell 

 County. The most important workings in the first mentioned locality 

 are known as the Sink Hole mines, near Bandana. Although these 

 mines have been operated extensively in recent years, sufficient traces 

 of the old work remain to convey a fair notion of the nature and 

 extent of the prehistoric mining. There are two main groups of pit- 

 tings, each approximately i.ooo feet in length and 20 to 60 feet in 



Fig. 47. — Stone picks used in excavating and freeing the crystals of Mica. 



width. The original depth in many cases was upwards of 40 feet, 

 but recent operations of white miners have served to change their 

 appearance, and to fill up the deeper excavations. The pittings are 

 surrounded by a somewhat uneven ridge of detritus derived from the 

 excavations, which has been added to in places by the modern miners, 

 and has been dug into of late years to recover the mica rejected and 

 thrown out by the aborigines. 



An important site of the ancient operations now known as the 

 Clarissa mine, three miles east of Bakersville, Mitchell County, was 

 also visited. This is probably the best preserved and most striking of 

 the aboriginal workings in this general region, and serves to illustrate 

 the importance of the mica industry in prehistoric times. Entering a 



