OF LANCASTEE COUNTY. 611 



the valleys and months of the Conestoga, Pequca, Chic(iuesaluiiga and Conoy crocks, as 

 localities whose exploration would probahly greatly enrich the archaeological treasmy 

 of the county. The pictorial inscriptions on the rocks in the Susciuehaniia, of which a 

 minute account is subjoined, are also very important. 



But before noticing Indian antiquities, we reprint here an account of tlie discovery of 

 fossil-bones in 1816. 

 Extract of a letter from Joel Lightner, Esq., dated Salisbury, Lancaster county, Pa., 



Nov. 30, 181 G, to the Rev. Mr. Shaffer, of New York. 



My absence from home, and being otherwise much engaged, prevented me from 

 writing sooner. It is with pleasure that I undertake to give you all the satisfaction 

 that I am capable of giving respecting the circumstances connected with the discovei-y 

 of certain fossil bones found on my laud ; their dimensions, locality, manner in which 

 they lay deposited, nature of the earth in which found, <kc. 



Five or six years since, I discovered upon a bank of limestone, witliin five rods of the 

 Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike road, the appearance of handsome Hag stones, 

 standing partly on their edge, inclining somewhat to the north, with their ends north- 

 east and south-west, at which time and since, we have occasionally taken several of 

 them out ; and as they proved to be valuable for sills, flags, &c., and the demand con- 

 siderable, I concluded to have the quarry completely opened, in doing which it was 

 necessary to begin at the foot of the hill or bank, and to dig on a level until we could 

 reach the stone. This work I commenced with a few hands in August last, and after 

 having penetrated twenty-four feet into the bank, on a level, through a rich black 

 earth, intermixed with a small piece of limestone [perpendicidar depth about eight or 

 nine feet] we came to a body of hard clay, also intermixed with small pieces of hme- 

 stone, materially difterent from the earthy matter dug up on entering the bank, being 

 a yellowish cast, abounding in some parts with calcareous spar, and so extremely hard 

 that it was with difficulty to be entered with a pick or mattock. After having worked 

 into the body of this stratum of clay, limestone, &c., about four feet and a half from 

 its surface, and within a few inches of the rocks or flag stones, (the object of our 

 labor,) a large bone was found, supposed to be the upper bone of the fore -leg of some 

 large animal, the lower part appeared to have been broken off, as nothing of the joint 

 could be seen. The upper part was to be seen in its full size, but being much decayed, 

 and the clay and small stones so very hard pressed in and about it, that the greater 

 portion of it could not be kept together, leaving only a small spongy end to it, and that 

 also with clay, and the small pieces of limestone firmly united with it. 



The length of the bone, as much as I was able to save of it, is fifteen inches, and 

 measures ten and a half inches around the smaller solid part ; the circumference of the 

 thicker or upper part is twenty-two inches, but the thickest part could not be preserved, 

 being so much decayed, and probably there might have been eight or ten inches want- 

 ing. 



This bone was found lying partly in a horizontal position, the thick end witluu three 

 or four inches of the rock's termination, and appeared to have been thrown there pro- 

 miscuously, as well as the pieces of limestone around it, which are evidently fragments 

 of larger ones. 



Within three or four feet of the same place, in a black earth or mould, appearances 

 o{ other large bones presented themselves, but they were so much decomposed that they 

 could not be preserved entire, resembling pidveilzed chalk, or slacked lime. 



I have put up specimens of the different earths as mentioned above, also of the rocks 

 and stones found near the spot where the bones Avere discovered ; and also a piece of 

 the bone which I intend to forward to you by tlie first safe opportunity. 



Since the discovery of these bones on my land, I have been informed that many years 

 since, an extraordinary large tooth (grinder) was found in a spring about two miles 

 from my quarry, but I am not able to learn what has become of it. 



