Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. 143 



milky quartz, nearly all of which had broken up by the fire. In 

 another altar a slight excavation disclosed upwards of 600 spear- 

 heads. " Flint Ridge," which extends through the counties of Jack- 

 son, Muskingum, and Licking, Ohio, is a locality in which this 

 mineral is found. The locality appears to have been extensively 

 wrought. 



The axes, pestles, &c., like those formerly in use among the exist- 

 ing tribes of Indians, are composed of tough syenitic rocks, green- 

 stone, &c., and are all to bo referred to primitive localities. 



There are other varieties of rock, a description of compact slate 

 of a dull green ground, interpersed with stripes of a dark black 

 colour, a stone of a high specific gravity, dark ground, thickly in- 

 terspersed with minute flakes of salmon-coloured mica. The primi- 

 tive locality of neither of these varieties is known. The most in- 

 teresting variety of stone is a kind of porphyry, which was wrouoht 

 into the most delicate ancient sculptures. All the examples were 

 of intense hardness. The primitive locality is unknown. 



Mica is found in great abundance in the mounds. It is fre- 

 quently found in large sheets of all varieties, and is often cut into 

 ornamental figures, discs, scrolls, and oval plates. Some of these 

 plates are quite large. Several fine specimens of graphic mica in 

 oval plates were recently found in a mound near Lower Sandusky, 

 Ohio. 



Articles made of other varieties of stone are also found. 



Beads and other ornaments are taken from the mounds, composed 

 of the compact portions of marine shells, and several thousands often 

 accompany a single skeleton. Not less than five kinds of marine 

 shells have been fully identified. Quantities of pearls, more or less 

 burned, have been discovered, and they are clearly not from the 

 fresh water moUusca. These must have been obtained from the 

 Gulf of Mexico. The teeth of the shark, alligator, bear, panther, 

 wolf, the talons of rapacious birds, and the fossil teeth of the shark, 

 are taken from the mounds. 



The carvings on stone, as before observed, display no inconsider- 

 able skill. They exhibit a close observance of nature, and an at- 

 tention to details which is not looked for among a people not consi- 

 derably advanced in the arts. They are remarkable for their truth- 

 fulness ; they display not only the general form and features of the 

 animal sought to be represented, but to a surprising deoree their 

 characteristic attributes and expression. In some instances their 

 very habits are represented. 



Among the sculptures are also some of the human head, which, it 

 may safely be concluded, display not only the characteristic features 

 of the ancient people, but also their modes of adjusting their hair, 

 their style of ornament, &c. The skeletons belong to two eras, those 

 of the tribes inhabiting the country when discovered by the Euro- 

 peans, and those of the builderf? of the mounds. The skeletons are 



