870 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



less area, Mr. Fowke's belief is that the preliistoric man was unable to 

 (quarry or break pieces or blocks of tiiiit suitable for use off the solid 

 layer at his feet, and that he proceeded by the use of Are and water 

 alternately to erode a hole or pit through the hint. Arrived in this 

 way at the bottom of the layer of Hint, he then broke out from the face 

 of the flint wall and threw away such pieces as had been affected by 

 the fire, until good flint was procured, which was taken out for use. 

 The i)rocess was continue*! until the quarrying was interfered with by 

 the superincumbent earth. Why this was not excavated wider and the 

 quarrying continued against the face of the rock, instead of what 

 seems to have been the practice, opening a new pit through the clay, 

 and a new hole through the flint, has not been explained; but that he 

 conducted his operations in the latter manner and not the former 

 seems established. Mr. Fowke says:' 



In Cosliocton County, near Warsaw, are some similar pits which have been reopened 

 by residents of the locality. In them were found two layers of flint, the upper a 

 dark variety, the lower a clear, translucent kind of cl)akedony. This lower flint 

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

 lar plan was followed at the ridge. 



Similar hammers were found at Flint Ridge, and there is in the U.S. 

 National Museum a series of a hundred or more, varying in weight from 

 G ounces to 20 xwunds. The smaller hammers were found distributed 

 over the surface at the workshops where the raw material was carried 

 to be worked into implements. Mr. Fowke is of the opinion tliat there 

 were at Flint Ridge two kinds of workshops, one for the ruder work of 

 blocking out the implements, and the other for the finishing; and he 

 assigns this division of labor to eight localities for each, all on the 

 plateau of the ridge. Without expressing an o[)iuion as to the correct- 

 ness of this division of workshops, the author can testify that some 

 localities of the neighborhood were strewn with ruder and heavier 

 material, while others had a profusion of small and fine chips, flakes, 

 and debris, evidently the product of the finer finishing work. The 

 latter localities were mostly on the high blufts or points of land over- 

 looking the valleys below, and from which position one could see far 

 over the adjoining country. On these points the flint chii)s, flakes, etc., 

 were in such jirofusion as, in some cases, to prevent the grass forming 

 a sod. The author chose one of these spots and dug it out 10 by 12 

 inches and 14 inches deep to the bottom of all flint debris. He then 

 washed out the earth. The flints were 7 inches deep and the earth 7 

 inches, half and half. The flints from this hole were brought to the 

 U. S. National Museum. The accompanying plates (14 and 15) show 



' Smithsonian Report, 1884, p. 864. 



