PROF. BERTHOUD. EXPLORATIONS IX IDAHO AND MONTANA. 



beautifully and skilfully worked out of flakes, by a simple pro- 

 cess of slow clipping pn the edges by means of a buckhorn tool, 

 with a cross notch, holding the flake in a piece of buckskin so as 

 not to cut their hands on the fresh sharj) edges of the obsidian flake. 



In the National Park Prof. Hayden''s ])ar- 

 ties found a gorge in the mountains which 

 is almost entirely formed of volcanic glass ; 

 they have aptly named it Obsidian Canon. 

 Here, evidently, the material has been used 

 from time immemoiial for flaking and con- 

 version into im])lements. The most common' 

 foi-ni 1 have found was leaf form, some of 

 them as much as five or six inches long and 

 well proportioned. Some arrow heads of 

 olisidian, unfortunately lost in the moun- Fig. i 1-2 nat. size, 



tains, are beautifully and regularly worked, and one esjjecially 

 was as if made only a few days before, as it retained an edge and a 

 point as keen as a razor. 



The antiquities T have noticed and examined on Madison Foi'k, 

 extend along the river for three or four miles. These consist of 

 large rings of stones, generally rounded and water-worn. Some of 

 them surround low mounds now scarcely one and t)ne-half feet 

 high, as if an old wall around the mound. These were mostly no- 

 ticed al)out twenty miles southeast of Virginia City. Going sOuth 

 from them about one and one-half or two miles, and in tlie open 



%{ 

 n 



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Fig. S.— Scale, 1 mile to 1 iucli. 



bottom lands on west side of the Madison Fork, we found a singu- 

 lar series of remains, the use of which it is difficult to conjecture. 

 These remains generally follow the edge of a slight step or terrace, 

 of which Madison Valley offers numerous examples that extend for 



