978 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



A <lr-i»(»sit o[" Hints Avas turned up hy tlu^ plow, ou March I'S, 1882, on tlu; southern 

 boriha- of Cass Uouuty, 26 milrs east of the Illinois River. Its location was ou the 

 brow of the hills overlooking Indian Creek to the south. In this caclie were 35 

 elegant Hint implements entirely diH'erent in form, material, and linish, from those 

 before described. Their iiositiou in the ground was A^ertical and closely packed 

 together, but otherwise without any peculiar arrangeuu'ut. The 35 beautiful flints 

 of this Indian Creek deposit are the perfection of ancient stone-chipping art. In 

 form they are of the broad or lilac-leaf pattern, jioiuted more or less obtusely at one 

 end and regularly semicircular at the other; the length but little exceeding the 

 width ; scarcely more than three-eighths of an incli thick, they are smoothly chipped 

 to an even, sharp edge all around. They vary a little in size and somewhat in pro- 

 portions ; the smallest of them is 3^ inches long by 2f inches broad at the base, and 

 the largest one measures 5 inches in length and 3J inches across the widest iiart. Six 

 of them are made of mottled red and l)rowu glossy jasper, and the remaining 29 of 

 oriliuary white flint shading in texture from the compact translucent glassy to the 

 opaciue milk-white varieties. The rounded edge of eacli is smooth and worn, and 

 the sides of some are gapped, testifying to long and hard usages l)efore their inter- 

 ment, and indicating conclusively that the broad circular edge of the tool was the 

 one chiefly used.' 



In the summer of 1872 I received intelligence that a deposit of the same sort of 

 flints had been found at Beardstowu (Cass County). In excavating a cellar for a 

 new building on Main street, the laborers had reached the depth of 4 feet when 

 they struck the flints, and soou threw them all out (about a thousand in number), a 

 large portion of which I secured. The disposition of the flints in this deposit was 

 different from that in the Ohio mound, and that of the Frederickville deposit also. 

 These were embedded in the bank of the river, above the reach of highest water, 

 and about 300 yards up the bank of the stream from the large mound. An excava- 

 tion about 5 feet deep had been made through the sand to the drift clay, and, 

 instead of being placed on edge, as in the two other deposits, a layer of the disks 

 had been placed flat ou the clay, with points upstream, and overlajiping each other 

 as shingles are arranged on a roof. Over the first layer of flints was a stratum of 

 clay 2 inches in thickness; then another layer of flints was arranged as the first, 

 over which was spread another 2-inch stratum of clay, and so on, until the deposit 

 comi»rised five series or layers of flints, when the whole Avas covered Avith sand. 

 The area occupied by these buried flints measured in length about 6 feet, and in 

 width 1 feet. * * * j^q traces of fire Avere visible, nor had there been Avithin the 

 recollection of the oldest settler of the i)lace anj' mound or other external object to 

 mark the place of deposit. The flints of this lot are identical in material, color, 

 stylo of execution, and general outline and dimensions with those I have seen from 

 deposits at Frederickville and Clark's Works in Ohio. A fcAv of them are almost 

 circular in shape. Some are rough, but the majority are very accurately propor- 

 tione<l and neatlj' finished, Avhich Ave may accept as proof that the implements were 

 manufactured by seA^eral artisans who possessed unequal degrees of skill. Their 

 average length is 6 inches, their Avidth 4 inches, and they are three-fourths of an 

 inch thick in the middle. Their average Aveight is 11 pounds. * * * They were 

 all made from globular or oA'al nodules of black or dark-gray hornstone, Avliich 

 Avere iirst split open and each part again split or Avorked down by chipping to the 

 shape and size required. In seAcral of the specimens the first fracture of the nodule 

 forms the side of the Implement, Avith but slight modification beyond a little trim- 

 ming of the edges. Many of them retain in the center the nucleus around Avhich 

 the siliceous atoms agglomerated to form the nodule. In a few the nucleus is a 

 rough i)iece of limestone; in others it consists of fragments of beautifully crystal- 

 lized chalcedony, surrounded by regular light and dark circles of eccentric accretion 



' J. F. Snyder, Smithsonian Report, 1881, pp. 564-568. 



