176 BUREAU OF AMEEICAISr ETHNOLOGY [bull. 60 



nnd the massive flint was imcovered and broken up bit by bit. This 

 AYork resulted in the accumulation of ridges and heaps of earth 

 about the margins of the pits, and many of the earlier excavations 

 were obliterated by gradual filling. It should not be imagined, how- 

 ever, that evidence of these operations is to-day obliterated or nearly 

 so. Many of the pits are yet as distinct as if made within recent 

 times, and it is not unusual to find them still having a depth of 

 5 to 10 feet. 



The flint stratum is of irregular thickness and uneven quality and 

 does not aj^jiear to exceed 7 or S feet in thickness at any point. Where 

 the material was found to be of good quality only small sections of 

 the bed remained unworked. Large tracts of the plateau summit, 

 which is some 3 miles in length and neai'ly 3 in width at the Avide.st 

 part, are so broken up by the ancient work that they are almost 

 wholly lost to agriculture, and on many workshop sites the deposits 

 of shaping refuse are so heavy that the plow can not be used. Natu- 

 rally the most deeply pitted areas are still in forest, while the soil in 

 such parts as have been invaded by the plow is literally filled with 

 fragments, chips, and other rejectage. 



The flint varies prontly at difforont portions of the deposit. For some distance 

 from the margin on t'vory side it is wliitisli or grayisli in coloi', 

 [The Flint] cellular or porous in structure from the weathering out of 



small fossils, and makes an excellent buhrstone, for which 

 purpose it was formerly in much demand, \yithin this bonier it is more com- 

 pact, freer from impurities, and possesses all the colors and shades ever seen in 

 such stone. Much of it is a typical chalcedony, blue or grayish-blue and trans- 

 lucent. Large beds exist of banded or ribbon jasper, with alternating stripes of 

 light and dark gray. In places there is a glas.sy variety ranging from almost 

 perfect transparency to complete opacity, except in very thin flakes, included 

 carbonaceous matter producing every gradation from a slight cloudiness to jet 

 black. Much of this can not be distinguished from moss agate. In the central 

 part of the ridge the chalcedony has weathered into various tints of blue, red, 

 brown, yellow, and white ; occasional pieces of green and purple are found.^ 



The great marvel is that the aborigines ever accomplished the 

 work of which such abundant traces remain, and only 



Method of Quarry- 4^1 11 i 1 ^ 11 £ 



. those who have ventured to remove a small mass or 



the flint fi-om its place can realize the appalling diffi- 

 culty of the work, even to men with tools of steel, unaided by pow- 

 erful explosives. The work was done, no doubt, little by little with 

 tools of stone, wood, and buckhorn, aided by fire, as described by 

 Mr. Fowke. A freshly made pit must have presented somewhat the 

 appearance indicated in the sectional view, figure 58. 



A pit of which a special study was made by Mr. Fowke was some — 



thirty-two feet in diameter inside of the wall of earth surrounding it, which 

 wall is now 2 feet higher than the general surface around it, and from 20 to 30 



1 Fowke, Archteological History of Ohio, pp. 619-621. 



