HciiJiEs] THE PINY BRANCH QUARRIES 35 



locality. The view looks iiorth\rard across the valley of the brauch; a 

 dotted line half way up the slopes separates the sedimentary and crys- 

 talline rocks, and in connection ■with it the qnarry sites are indicated 

 by flark figures. The sites examined by trenching are indicated by 

 small crosses. 



Operations on the Site 



discovery and rkconnoissance 



So far as known the first discovery of worked stones on the site 

 of our excavations at Piuy branch was made about 1880 by Mr De 

 Lancey W. Gill, of the TTnited States Geological Survey, who was 

 engaged in sketching on the bank of the stream and by chance ob- 

 served a flaked stone in the gravel at his feet. Subsequently Mr Gill 

 came upon a number of heaps of quarry-shop refuse in tlie second 

 ravine west of Fourteenth street, at the point selected in 1889 for our 

 trenching operations. 



In September, 1889, 1 visited Mr Thomas Blagden, owner of the prop- 

 erty, to obtain i)ermissiou to work on the premises, and learned from 

 him that about the year 1878 a street contractor had been permitted to 

 collect material for paving from these bluffs, and that various piles of 

 refuse found by us on the surface were gathered together at that time, 

 a portion only of the material collected having been carried away. At 

 that time a narrow roadway was cut leading from the creek up the 

 little ravine to the site of our recent labors. Mr Blagden sul)se(]uentiy 

 informed me that while a boy, some twenty-five years ago, he had 

 observed the great quantities of bowlders at this point, and desiring 

 to know something of the reasons for their accumulation, had secured 

 help to dig a trench, which was abandoned, however, before the bed of 

 bowlder refuse was fully penetrated. I have no doubt that the evi- 

 dences of former excavation discovered at the fiftieth foot of our first 

 trench, and which caused us no little perplexity at first, is thus fully 

 accounted for. 



Ill beginning the examination of this site the first step taken was a 

 careful examination of its topographic features with especial reference 

 to such eccentricities of contour as might be due to the agency of man. 

 Extensive working over of surface deposits, especially if the pitting 

 were deep, would leave inequalities of jjrofile which, if not obliterated 

 or obscured by natural agencies, would be easily recognized as artificial. 

 Such inequalities were readily found; indeed, they are so well defined 

 in places that even the inexpert observer could not fail to detect them. 

 It was partly on account of peculiarities of profile that excavations 

 were undertaken at the spot selected, and the results have showu that 

 these surface indications were not deceptive. 



Toward the upper end of the ravine tlie elevations and depressions 

 resulting from the ancient quarry work are more jjronounced. Either 

 the disturbances here are more recent than below or else the leveling 

 agencies of nature have been less active. 



