NO. 12 MONACAN TOWNS IN VIRGINIA BUSHNELL 35 



A caini formed of rather small stones, shown in plate 12, figure 2, 

 about 3 feet in height and 15 feet in diameter, stands on the summit 

 of the cliff overlooking this part of the low grounds. The cliff is here 

 a narrow ridge and the cairn commands an extensive view of the 

 county westward to the Blue Ridge and in the opposite direction across 

 the intervening valley to the South Western Mountain. This is about 

 I mile l)elow the mouth of the North Branch. 



The map of Virginia and Maryland, drawn by Augustin Herrman, 

 was completed in 1670 but not engraved and issued until three years 

 later. No Monacan towns are indicated on the banks of the James or 

 of its tributaries. Lederer made his journey up the valley of the 

 James during the months of May and June of that year, but evidently 

 his travels were not known to Herrman until the appearance of his 

 brief volume of " Discoveries " which was printed in London in 1672. 

 The engraving of the map may already have been completed by 

 William Faithorne in England and consequently it would have been 

 too late for Herrman to have added the newly acquired data. 



The Herrman map shows the course of the James, with one large 

 tributary far to the westward. This was probably the Rivanna, known 

 from the earliest days of the colony. A legend on the map, placed 

 north of the latter stream, reads thus : 



Mount Edlo This name derives from a Person that was in his 

 Infancy taken Prisoner in the last Massacra over Virginia, 

 And carried amongst others to this Mount, by the Indians, 

 which was their watch Hill, the conntry there about being 

 Champion and not much Hilly. 



Mr. b'airfax Harrison has suggested to the writer the possibility 

 of Mount Edlo being some point in Albemarle County west of where 

 the Rivanna j^asses the South Western Mountain. H this is correct 

 the high narrow ridge, surmounted by the cairn, may have been the 

 spot indicated. The great village, Monasukapanough, was less than 

 3 miles distant, and the entire region shows evidence of Indian 

 occupancy. The country had probably not been seen by a European 

 and the description of the land, as recorded in the legend, was neces- 

 sarily vague and uncertain. 



SOAPSTONE 



Steatite, or soapstone. is foimd in several localities in the region 

 between the Rivanna and the James. It was quarried and used by the 

 Indians, and what is believed to be the most extensive quarry worked 

 by them within these bounds was discovered in 1926, on a high ridge 



