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at one end and a blunt square termination at the other. It 

 might have been used as the head of a small spear. Besides 

 the hearth-stones and some large shapeless stones with fire 

 marks in their immediate neighbourhood, there is one other 

 kind of stone found, and one which has evidently been artificially 

 shaped. It is like the half of a rounded pebble The flat or 

 rather slightly concave surface is perfectly smooth, and has 

 obviously been brought into this condition by friction. Mr. 

 Mackay is of opinion that these stones were used for dressing 

 skins of animals with. In accordance with this interpretation 

 we may call the one stone implement hitherto found in these 

 mounds the " rubbing stone." The evidence as to the age of 

 this mound all points to its being considerable No one can 

 stand opposite the vertical section, and note the accumulation 

 of sand and vegetable earth, with thick bush ten feet high 

 growing on its surface, without this idea forcing itself upon him. 

 Yet before it could have begun to grow, sand and earth drifted 

 b}" the wind had covered in the abandoned mound to the 

 depth of several feet. Grass and bush have crept over its 

 surface and the whole mound has thus been completely buried 

 and hidden for how many years no one can say. Moreover the 

 accumulation of this mass of debris three hundred feet long and 

 twenty five feet high was in itself the work of no brief space of 

 time The outer margin of the mound at its base was within a 

 few feet of the river's edge before this portion of it was removed ; 

 so that when the original founders first made their homes ujjon 

 this spot the river cannot have stood at any appreciably higher 

 level tluin it does now ; hence, whatever the age of this mound, 

 and no unprejudiced observer will deny that it is considerable, 

 it is but a thing of yesterday compared to the antiquity of those 

 implements left on the water's edge when the river stood seventy 

 feet higher than it now does, or than it did when the foundation 

 shell of this huge mound was laid. 



