PREHISTORIC JASPER MINES. 



663 



of " Grimes' Graves " near Brandon, in England ? Did he encoun- 

 ter the rock in solid ledges as in Arkansas, or in loose nodules ? 

 Did he reduce it by fire, splinter it with hafted stone hammers, 

 such as are found at the prehistoric copper mines on Isle Royale, 

 in Lake Superior, or by battering bowlder against bowlder ? Did 

 he finally chip the material into arrowheads at the quarry, or 

 carry away lumps of the stone to be worked up elsewhere ? 



These and many other questions we asked ourselves on a first 

 glance at the bramble-grown pits and refuse heaps on the lonely 

 hilltop at Durham. And after a careful study of the place, several 



Fio. 1 (|). a, CAST OF POINTED WOODEN DIGGING IMPLEMENT; b, CAST OF LOG SHARP- 

 ENED BY STONE TOOLS. Jasper Mines, Macungie, Pa. 



expeditions sent out on this and the preceding summer, resulted in 

 the discovery of eight new quarries lying in a continuous line 

 from the Delaware almost to the Schuylkill.* 



All, though varying greatly in size and quality of material, tell 

 the same story. 



In some, the excavations, filled with forest mold and over- 

 grown with trees, would escape the attention of the casual rambler 

 until the piles of flakes, yellow and rose-tinted, easily displayed 

 by scraping away the leaves that concealed them, revealed the 

 handiwork of the ancient quarryman. 



But at others, as at Macungie and Vera Cruz, the passer-by 

 would halt in amazement. The appearance is too unusual, the 

 work too vast one hundred to one hundred and fifty pits, some 

 of them fifteen and twenty feet deep and one hundred to one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet in diameter, is no every-day sight. Again, the 

 tinted flakes and refuse heaps tell the tale, and the neighboring 



* At Coopersburg, Limeport, Saucon Creek, Vera Crux, nml M:u-migie, in Lehigh County 

 and at Long Swamp, Bowers, and Leimbai-h's Mills, in Berks. 



