PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 209 



long by o^ broad, and the other is only a little smaller. The discovery of sim- 

 ilar heaps of rudely formed discs of flint has been repeatedly made under 

 circumstances much more obviously indicating their being placed for some 

 specific purpose in the deposit from whence they were recovered ; and the 

 immense numbers of them occasionally heaped or systematically arranged on a 

 single spot is a fact which may have ^ome significance in illustration of the 

 numerous flint implements recovered from the drift on very limited areas. 



The researches of Messrs. Squier and Davis, in the mounds of Ohio, have 

 revealed the fact that large deposits of such discs repeatedly occur in those 

 ancient earthworks ; and in a manuscript account of researches carried on more 

 recently in the same locality, which I have had an opportunity of examining 

 while at Washington, the following narrative occurs : " On the south side of the 

 confluence of the Racoon and the south fork of the Licking river, at McMullen's 

 inn, is a square earthwork, with a small circle attached to the west side. Some 

 workmen, digging for clay in a brick-yard occupying part of the square, dis- 

 covered a nest of 198 flint arrrow-hcads about two feet below the surface, all 

 nicely set up on end, the smaller ones Avithiu and the larger without. Some 

 were as large as a man's open hand, all neatly made, and of the same pattern." 

 To this the explorer adds, as a singular fact : " All the arrow-heads I have 

 obtained from out the mounds, or in similar deposits, are of this character or 

 pattern." 



Some uncertainty as to the occurrence of the modern forms of flint arrow- 

 heads among the genuine deposits of the mound-builders of the Ohio valley is 

 occasioned by the practice of interment, by the forest tribes, superficially iu the 

 ancient mounds. Certain it is, however, that in those ftiounds a class of lai'gely 

 and rudely formed discs, or spear-heads, of flint, quartz, and manganese garnet 

 is common. Others are chipped into regular form with minute care, but are 

 also of unusually large size, and, like the ruder discs, suggest the idea of their 

 purposed use, without the addition of any shaft or handle. Messrs. Davis and 

 Squier remark, when describing the contents of the altar mounds explored by 

 them : " Some of the altar or sacrificial mounds have the deposits within them 

 almost CT^tirely made up of finished arrow and spear points, intermixed with 

 masses of the manufactured material. From one altar were taken several 

 bushels of finely worked lance-heads of milky quartz, nearly all of which had 

 been broken up by the action of fire. In another mound, an excavation six feet 

 long and four broad, disclosed upwards of 600 spear-heads or discs of hornstone, 

 nidely blocked out, and the deposit extended indefinitely on every side. The 

 originals are about six inches long and four broad, and weigh not far from two 

 pounds each."* The accompanying wood-cut (Fig. 11) illustrates the original 

 text, and Avill sufiice to show the prevailing forms of the rude implements ; but 

 it fails to suggest to the mind their great size, and clumsy, ponderous character, 

 so nearly approaching, in both respects, to those of the European drift. 



Some of the specimens are described as nearly round, but most of them are 

 rudely heart-shaped. With them were found also several large nodules of simi- 

 lar material, from which portions had been chipped off. Estimating the whole 

 amount from the number exposed within the limits to which the explorer's ex- 

 cavations extended, they sujiposed there must have been nearly four thousand 

 altogether, and possibly a still greater number, under the single mound. 



The peculiar circumstances of the deposit at Racine, as described by Dr. 

 Hoy, where many discs were found lying on the clay with the accumulated 

 peat formation above them, would, iu some localities, suggest an antiquity 

 measurable by the slow formation of the peat above them ; but the extensive 

 traces of an ancient population, and especially the numerous earthworks in the 

 State of Wisconsin, suggest the possibility of the collection of stone imple- 



- Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi valley, p. 213. 



