HOLMES] ART INFLUKNCED KY MATERIALS 23 



It will readily be seen tliat these conditions of mineral resources 

 must have had a marked eft'ect on the art of the region, and thus on 

 the culture of the natives inhabiting it. One drainage area supplies 

 quartz mainly, and the art is quartz art: another supplies (piartzite, 

 and the art is quartzite art, and so on. x\,ll of tliese and other condi- 

 tions will be considered in the discussion of the distribution of the 

 remains of the region, to which subject a subsequent chapter is devoted. 



All kinds and conditions of rock in both lowland and highland were 

 exposed to some extent on the surface of the ground and were thus 

 readily obtained, but the more desirable varieties occur in the main 

 beneath the surface, and when the demand for them was great they 

 had to be sought and quarried, thus giving rise to one of the most 

 important of primitive industries. 



QUARRYING 



Quarrying begins with the removal of a fragment or mass of mate- 

 rial partially buried in the ground. It is but a step further to the 

 uncovering and removal of portions wholly buried, and only another 

 step to quarrying on a large scale. The methods and extent of the 

 quarrying necessarily differed with the ])eoples and their circumstances, 

 with the nature of the material, and with the conditions under which 

 it existed. 



Of the details of (juarrying operations our knowledge is yet imper- 

 fect, though much has been learned in certain directions; and of the 

 tools used in quarrying, aside from those made of stone and left on the 

 sites, no ilefinite information has as yet been obtained. It is quite 

 likely that implements of wood, buckhorn, and bone were used as in 

 foreign stone-age quarries, but traces of these have wholly disappeared 

 from I he sites thus far examined. Fire may have been used in some 

 localities as an agent in fracturing masses of stone, but the tidewater 

 region furnished little material, save perhaps quartz, suitable for 

 manipulation by this means. Massive forms of rock are found west of 

 the fall-line or western border of the tidewater country. Flint, jasper, 

 and rhyolite were quarried far back in the highland, aud vein quartz 

 was found, and, no doubt, to some extent quarried, in a multitude of 

 places over the whole Piedmont region, and dowu to aud even below 

 the margin of the tidewater area. Steatite or soapstone is a tough, 

 massive rock interbedded with gneissic formations, and rarely occurs 

 in detached masses. lu the beginning of its use it was secured where 

 exposed on the surface by prying off small masses. When its compact- 

 ness made this impracticable it was I'emoved by cutting out roundish 

 masses with stone picks. The lumps thus secured were ready for the 

 scul])tor's chisel. In time qu irrying developed and was extensively 

 carried on in many parts of Virginia and Maryland beyond the tide- 

 water border. 



In the tidewater pi'oviuce proper, quartzite occurs in the shape of 

 bowlders or cobbles only, which, mainly during the Potomac and 



