holmes! ABOEIGIXAL AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES PART I 249 



being no overlapping so far as developed. The length of this series 

 of excavations is about 800 feet, and the crest of the lateral dumps 

 are in places 80 to 90 feet apart. The ancient pittings are now well 

 filled up with excavated material, old and ncAV. The final digging at 

 the upper end is still 20 feet deep, and the cause of the cessation of 

 work at this point is made clear by the exposure of the quarry face, 

 recently uncovered, where it is seen that the vein is only a few 

 inches in width, showing little quartz and no mica. It is manifestly 

 pinched out at this point, and neither the aborigines nor the whites 

 have been able to find a continuation. 



It was in the deep digging near the upper end of this mine that 

 most of the stone implements shown in figure 115 were discovered. 

 They had been abandoned where last used in the bottom of the 

 trench, where they had served, the picks to excavate the softer ma- 

 terials, and the hammerlike tools to break up the harder vein rock. 



It is an interesting fact that the sites of workshops to which the 

 crystals of mica were carried and the selected ma- 

 Woikshops terial prepared for transportation to distant parts 



are found in the vicinity of both quarries, as indi- 

 cated in figure 110. />. 



On these sites, which are circulai", probably indicating the former 

 presence of lodges, nnicli poor mica was left, and this has been 

 worked over by the whites, who even to-day are engaged in excavat- 

 ing in the dumps for mica rejected by the Indian miners as unsuited 

 to their purposes. 



At the house of William Robinson, in the valley a quarter of a 

 mile from the mine, are traces of an ancient village 

 Village Site site on whicli numerous stone implements of ordinary 



types ma^^ still be picked up. 



An important site of ancient o])erations now known as the Clarissa 

 mine is located on the farm of John P)uchanan 3 

 Clarissa Mine miles east of BakersviUe, Mitchell County. The ex- 



cavation occurs in a low, rounded ridge which over- 

 looks Cane Creek. It is probably the best-preserved and most strik- 

 ing example of the aboriginal workings in this general region and 

 serves to illustrate the importance of the mica industry in prehistoric 

 times. Entering the ridge at an oblique angle (fig. 120), the walls of 

 the excavation are of unequal height, the upper margin being much 

 the higher. The lower margin, as shown in the section (fig. 121), is 

 obscured by heavy bodies of ancient dump material, which now sup- 

 ]:)orts numerous chestnut trees the trunks of which are 4 to 5 feet in 

 diameter. The modern operators who have worked the vein to the 

 depth, at the upper end, of more than 300 feet, have filled the old 

 trenches to the depth of 30 to 40 feet. When deserted by the original 



