244 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 60 



of 40 feet or more, v\ere confined largely to friable and easily 

 worked formations, so that tools of wood and buckhorn served every 

 purpose, tools of stone not being re(}iiired until the unaltered enclos- 

 ing rock was encountered, often at a depth beneath tlie surface of 

 30 or 40 feet. This theory finds support in the fact that almost all 

 the stone tools found had been abandoned in the bottoms of the 

 deepest diggings, where the feldspar of the veins and the schists of 



Fig. 115. Stnuc iinplcinouts from the ancient mica mines of Xortli Carolina. (One- 

 fourth actual size.) 



the vein walls were so hard as to be worked ^vith difficulty, even with 

 steel tools, without the aid of explosives. 



No definite idea of the number of ancient diggings can be formed, 



but that the\^ were numerous and widely distrib- 

 Aboriginai Mining uted over the soutli Appalachian region can not be 



<HU'slioned. western North Carolina claiming the larg- 

 est number. The work of uncovering the mica-bearing veins and re- 

 moving the crystals did not differ essentially in character from thai of 

 the mining of copper, steatite, pipestone, and flint. It recpiired the 

 same kind of tools and called for the same superior intelligence and 

 steadfastness of pur]7ose. The veins in which the quartz and mica 

 crystals prevailed resisted the disintegrating and erosive agencies, 

 and as a result were exposed in the slopes of the hills, and were thus 



