12 JAMES AND POTOMAC ARCHEOLOGY - Knology 



show tliat it was ever occupied by Indians. On the other hand, the 

 island is well protected from assault, the soil is all alluvium, the ridge 

 along each side at the upper end is fully as high as any of the bottom 

 land on either side of the river, and many specimens of steatite pot- 

 tery, some rough, others tolerably well finished, have been found on the 

 island, whereas such are extremely rare elsewhere in the vicinity. The 

 villages near here, to be mentioned presently, may have been perma- 

 nent, or only temporary, but their sites were in no way preferable, 

 being either surrounded or submerged in every considerable freshet. 

 Altogether it is very probable that the main town of the Monacan was 

 on Elk island. 



CALEDONIA. 



A steatite quarry showing Indian work may be found a mile from 

 the village of Caledonia, which is about C miles from Columbia. It has 

 been examined by Mr Cushing. 



CUMBERLAND COUNTY. 



MAYO FARM. 



On the farm of Dr Edward Mayo, opposite Columbia, the bottom is 

 about 300 yards m width, and like nearly all the bottom land in the 

 vicinity is highest near the river. In 1870 this ridge was greatly eroded, 

 and many skeletons were visible after the water had subsided. No trace 

 of them now remains, and the ground is so torn into depressions and 

 heaped into minor ridges by that and later floods, and so disturbed by 

 cultivation, that it is impossible to determine, otherwise than by carry- 

 ing along a series of trenches, where any burials have been made. That 

 it was a village site is sufficiently proven by the great quantities of 

 broken and burned stones, quartz chi])s and si)alls, and broken pottery, 

 both of clay and steatite, scattered about on the surface. 



HOOrEK KOCK. 



On the south side of the river, 2 miles below Columbia, is a ledge or 

 cliff", known as Hooper rock. It contains a vein or stratum of steatite 

 which does not, however, seem to have been worked. In the woods, 

 somewhat less than a mile back of this, is an aboriginal quarry, where 

 many broken or unfinished vessels have been found. It is covered with 

 such a dense growth of small trees, underbrush, and vines, that an 

 examination is impossible until the ground is cleared. 



FLUVANNA COUNTY. 



The only aboriginal remains examined in detail in Fluvanna county 

 were those found in the vicinity of Columbia. 



Columbia is situated at the mouth of the Rivanna, on the lower or 

 left bank. On the point opposite, between the Rivanna and James, the 



