HIGHLAND COUNTY FLINT QUARRIES 



i I 



sketch iudicating approximately the relation of the cluster of partially 

 shaped fragments to the large stone is jiresented in tigure L3. 



Flint Quakiues 



Flint does not occur in any considerable bodies within convenient 

 reach of the tidewater region. Pebbles are found in limited numbers 

 in the various bowlder deposits and along the stream courses. Lim- 

 ited masses of the I'ock occur in the limestone formations of the Pied- 

 mont plateau; and one considerable outcrop of the rock in Ilighland 

 county, Virginia, is known to have been worked by the natives. In 

 May, 1S93, Mr Gerard Fowke, of the Bureau of Ethnology, at my re- 

 quest made a reconnoissauce in the region to verify the reports of 

 extensive aboriginal quarries in Crabapple bottom, Ilighland county, 

 and furnished the following notes: 



"On a spur that rises to a height of 200 feet, Just west of tiie village 

 of New Hampden, a large amount of flint has been released by tlie 

 decomposition of the limestone in which it was eml)edded. It is mostly 

 in the form of small nodules or fragments, although some of it is 

 interstratitied with the limestone. Over a considerable area on the 



— *5^" 



Fig. 13— Supposed anvil stone and cluster of slightly shaped liils of rh^-olite. 



northern end anfl at the top of the ridge, the* earth has been much 

 dug over by the aborigines for the purpose of proLuiring the stone. 

 Most of the pits remaining are quite small, few larger than would con- 

 tain a cartload of earth. The largest are on top of the ridge, where a 

 few have a dei)th of 2 to 3.J feet, with a diameter of 20 tooO feet. The 

 latter cover an area of about an acre; the others are so scattered that 

 it is diflicult to estimate their extent. There is no outcrop of stone 

 at any point where digging has been done, and it appears that the 

 searchers for the material had learned that the flint nodules and frag- 

 ments were distril>uted through the soil excavated for them in such 

 spots as ijroved to contain them in greatest abundance, making no 

 effort to quarry out the stone in which they occur. At various places 

 on the summit of the ridge the flint projected above the ground, and 



