166 GEOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



tion. The researches of antiquarians and archaeologists may yet throw 

 a flood of light upon these interesting investigations. The red man 

 was doubtless a mound builder, but I think more primitive men than he 

 built many of our mounds. In these structures he may have buried his 

 dead, but older and higher civilizations than the red man's, built earth- 

 works for defense, boundaries, and national purposes long before the In- 

 dian roamed over these hunting grounds. 



The usual flint arrow heads, stone axes, and other stone implements, 

 though not abundant, are sometimes picked up. 



One relic was found a few years ago, in the banks of the river at Ster- 

 ling, which deserves more than a passing notice. The implement is, I 

 believe, of pure copper, fashioned into the form of a long, heavy knife. 

 The broad end has a hole through it, and is turned over from the edges 

 towards the center, making a place or socket for a wooden handle or 

 spear-shaft. The blade is eleven inches long ; it is nearly an inch and 

 a half wide near the heel of the cutting side ; from thence it tapers on 

 both sides to a blunt point. It has a vein -like appearance over it, 

 caused by the unequal decay and eating of the copper rust. It was 

 found some seven feet below the surface of the earth, sticking out of an 

 embankment which had caved into Kock river. The formation was a 

 dark-colored diluvial, or river drift, made up of black or dark-colored de- 

 posits, containing chert and considerable river gravel. The spot where 

 found is seven or eight feet above ordinary water mark. If found where 

 indicated, this relic is older than the historic period, and is in some way 

 doubtless connected with the ancient mining of the Lake Superior cop- 

 per mines. 



Prior to the wearing away of the Cincinnati shales, where the Ster- 

 ling rapids are now located, the bed of the river was higher, and the 

 rapids further down the stream. At that time the stream might have 

 formed the embankment where this primitive knife or spear-head was 

 found ; but even that view of the case makes it almost of pre-Indian 

 origin.* 



The bone from the fore leg of the Mastodon, found in Ogle county, and 

 referred to in the report of that county, was found in the same river gravel 

 or drift, and at the same depth below the surface. This fact seems to 

 indicate that the Mastodon and the maker of this copper knife existed 

 at the same time in the Kock river valley. 



*KoTE. This knife has been figured in the Transactions of the Chicago Academy of Science, Vol. 1, 

 plate 23, fig. 3. A. H. W. 



