198 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 60 



the leaf-sluipe blades, the form recjuired for final specialization 



into spearheads, arrow points, knives, scrapers, and 



Rejectage and ^|j.-|jg^ Scores of tons of these faihires conld be col- 



1 roduct 



lectecl, while freely intermingled with the refuse are 

 the rude hannners of ({uartzite made by slightly reshaping bowlders 



of tough (juartzite i)r()bably obtained in the valleys 

 Chipping Hammers below. This particular ]nt was entered by the whites 



in recent 3"ears and a shaft was sunk in the center for 

 the purpose of determining whether or not the rocks contained gold or 

 other })recious metal, for it was popularly believed that these pits 

 were old Spanish diggings where the early adventurers obtained 

 fabled gold. It would seem that a very slight experience with the 

 barren flinty novaculite must have discouraged the unlucky pros- 

 1 sectors. Some of the shaft timbers are still in place in this pit, 

 and the careless observer might readily be led to believe that the 



excavations were wholly due to modern enterprise. 

 Recent Digging That the i-eceiit work has not seriously changed the 



contour of the ancient (juai'ries is evident from the 

 fact that neai'ly the entire mass of rejected material, interior and 

 exterior, is coini)osed of artihcially shaped materials, the result of 

 the ancient operations. 



Seeming evidence of the use of fire in (luari-ying is found in some 



of the lateral diggings where there has been undermin- 

 Use of Fire ing. Here certain faces of the novacidite, protected 



from the weather by overhanging ledges, display 

 Idackened patches which may be due to the ancient fires. 



Another very important group of these (juarries near Magnet Cove 



was somewluit huri-iedlv examined by the writer and 

 Magnet Cove Quni- j.^^.^.^ collections wei'c made. The sketch map (fig. 



78) will convey some definite idea of the vast extent 

 of the work in this place. Later, at his request, a more careful 

 examination was conducted by Prof. AV. P. Jenney, from whose 

 unpublished account the following paragraphs are extracted : 



These old excavations are located on the top of the divide between the watei-s 

 of Cove Creek and Pleasant Run, a branch of Ten Mile Creek, about twelve 

 miles east of Hot SiM-inj^s. They consist of a lunnber of shallow excavations 

 upon the broad, rounded crest of the divide, covering a belt three hundred to 

 six hundred feet in width, the workings following the general strike of the 

 novaculite strata at this point, to wit, N. 60 degrees to 70 degrees E. As far as 

 I followed the divide — for a distance of one and a half miles — these workings 

 continued, and are reported to extend, with breaks at intervals, an extreme 

 distance of four miles southwesterly from this ])oint. They are at present cov- 

 ered with soil and overgrown by oak timber of ordinary size. The excavations 

 are nearly tilled l)y the caving in of the loose waste from the surrounding 

 dumps, but were evidently worked to a depth of tifteen to thirty or forty feet, 

 apparently, as open cuts or trenches, following the purest and most valuable 



