14 



ARCHAEOLOGY. (AMERICAN.) 



ing the valley at that place. The implement has 

 upon it the patina characteristic of the genuine 

 flint implements of great age in the valley of the 

 Somme, and is recognized as having all the feat- 

 ures of a true paheolith. It is represented in the 

 engraving (one fourth the real diameter) by the 



THE SMALLER IS THE PALuEOLITH FROM NEWCOMERSTOWN, OHIO, THE LARGER 

 FliOM AMIENS (FACE VIEW). 



side of a palaeolith from the valley of the Somme, 

 of which it is an exact counterpart. The third 

 fact is the discovery, by C. McTarnahan and 

 J. H. Neal, respectively one a surveyor, the 

 other a mining superintendent of two mortars 

 of stone in the undisturbed gravel under the lava 

 of Table mountain, Cal., the same formation in 

 which the Calaveras skull was found. The mor- 

 _tar found by Mr. McTarnahan was about one 

 hundred feet below the surface. Other objects 

 of human manufacture were found by Mr. Neal 

 in the same gravel, and a pestle by Clarence 

 King about twenty years ago. 



Ancient Mining Works. Writing of the 

 antiquity of the aboriginal mining works in 

 North America, Prof. John S. Newberry says 

 that the ancient copper mines on Lake Sup'e- 

 rior were abandoned not less than four hun- 

 dred years ago, for the heaps of rubbish around 

 the pits were covered with forest trees of the 

 largest, size. The old copper mines of North 

 Carolina, and the quarries of serpentine in the 



Alleghanies, show like evidence of antiquity. 

 Pits observed in the ground around Titusville, 

 Pa., proved to be relics of the excavations of 

 primeval oil gatherers, and in one of them an 

 old well was found which had been cribbed up 

 with timber, and contained a ladder like those 

 which have been found in the 

 old copper mines of Lake Su- 

 perior. Traces of a similar 

 well have been observed at En- 

 niskillen, Canada, and depres- 

 sions in the surface like those 

 on Oil Creek have been noticed 

 at Mecca and Gral'ton, Ohio. 

 Ruins of an ancient lead mine 

 exist on the Morgan farm, near 

 Lexington, Ky., in the form, 

 where they have not been dis- 

 turbed, of an open cut from 

 6 to 10 feet wide, of unknown 

 depth, now nearly filled with 

 rubbish. On either side of this 

 trench the material thrown out 

 forms ridges several feet in 

 height, and these are over- 

 grown with large trees. 



A Curious Earthwork. 

 An earthwork at Foster's Sta- 

 tion, on the Little Miami river, 

 described by Prof. F. W. Put- 

 nam, is remarkable for a ridge, 

 more than half a mile long, 

 from 20 to 50 feet wide, and 

 from 8 to 10 feet deep, of well- 

 burned clay, and including 

 masses of burned limestone, 

 clinkers, charred logs, and 

 heaps of ashes of from 1 to 40 

 bushels. To have burned all 

 this clay must have required a 

 heat like that of a Bessemer 

 furnace. The rim of burned 

 stuff is backed by an escarp- 

 ment of well-laid stone wall, 

 which probably once extended 

 down to the water. 



Mounds in Dakota. Thir- 

 ty - nine k mounds in North 

 Dakota, examined by Henry 

 Montgomery, consist of 1 beacon mound, 36 

 burial mounds, and 2 mounds designated as arti- 

 ficial. The burial mounds were of two kinds : 

 The ordinary, consisting of a circular, rounded, 

 or conical heap of earth, clothed with grass, and 

 rising generally to a height of several feet above 

 the surrounding level and containing one or 

 more vaults symmetrically disposed. The skele- 

 ton was generally found in a crouching posture, 

 with its back against the wall and face toward 

 the center. Charred poles were encountered in 

 digging for the vaults. The second kind had no 

 wood and no burial chambers, and the bones in 

 them were broken and scattered. A third kind 

 of mound, hardly distinct enough for separate 

 classification, contained a layer of clay that 

 seemed to overlie many human skeletons. 



Mounds in Manitoba, The Winnipeg 

 mound region, Manitoba, includes a district 

 400 miles long from east to west, and running 

 from the international boundary north to at 

 least latitude 50. About 60 of the mounds 



