526 ARCHEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS—II [BTH. ANN, 44 
Pits dug in comparatively level ground may be seen on the farm 
of Harrison Pitman (SE. 14 sec. 32, R.3, T.4). As most of these are 
in woods it is difficult to ascertain their extent; but they comprise 
at least 2 or 3 acres. Several are in a cleared field; and among the 
latter is one now about 4 feet deep and 50 feet across. 
It is reported that similar pits, representing about the same 
amount of work, exist on the farm of David Schaffer “ about a mile 
northeast of Pitman’s.” 
A little work of this nature has been done on the farm of Henry 
Struble (NE. 14 sec. 35, R. 3, T. 5); but the stone is of poor quality 
and the excavation was probably only an experiment. 
The most extensive digging discovered is on top of a hill terminat- 
ing in a high precipice overlooking the Ohio River, halfway between 
Mauckport and New Amsterdam. The flint stratum outcrops at 
the top of the precipice, and here the aborigines began their labors, 
throwing the earth and refuse material behind them as they worked 
into the hill. The excavated area is semicircular in form, being 
about 200 feet in length along the brow of the cliff and extending 
100 feet back at the farthest point. At this distance the earth was 
evidently too thick to justify its removal. The depth of the ditch, 
to the surface of an unknown thickness of accumulation in the 
bottom, is now 9 feet, consequently the face of the quarry at the 
time of its abandonment must have been nearly or quite 15 feet. 
In addition to this, there is a row of small pits extending for more 
than 100 feet, a few rods from the bluff. The ground thrown back 
out of the way and that immediately around the margin of the 
excavations contains such an amount of broken flint as to be almost 
like a macadamized road. 
At the foot of the bluff was an aboriginal village and burial 
ground which has furnished a great quantity of relics. The river 
shore is strewn with chips, flakes, spalls, and fragments, which 
show every process of manufacture from the first blocking-out to 
the final minute flaking touches. 
On the following farms patches of an acre or more in extent are 
covered with spalls in such quantities that cultivation is difficult on 
account of them. Pits may have existed before the land was cleared, 
but there is no evidence of them now. 
Henry Blake, SE. 4 sec. 22; Richards, NE. 14 sec. 27; H. E. 
Trotter, NW. 14 sec. 8; Lopp, SW. 14 sec. 27; Pittman 
(reported, but not visited), southern part of sec. 2 or 3; along the 
New Amsterdam pike for half a mile or more west of Valley City, 
sec. 7. 
On the farms of Alfred Hardshaw, SW. 14 sec. 6; S. M. Stock- 
slager, SW. 14 sec. 21; and Harry Hays, NW. 1% sec. 28, are large 
