XXIV REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY. 



Atlantic coast states. The ancient quarries of quartzite bowl- 

 ders and of steatite within the District of Columbia were 

 explored and extensive excavations were made. This work was 

 continued tlu-oughout July, and in August a quarry site near 

 the new U. S. Naval Obsei'vatory, on a ridge overlooking Rock 

 creek valley, was examined. The phenomena oljserved on 

 this site were practically identical with those of Piney branch, 

 described in the Eleventh Annual Report. A large area of 

 bowlder beds of the Potomac formation, two or three acres 

 in extent, had been worked over to the depth of several feet by 

 the aboriginal quaiTy men, and all available bowlders had been 

 utilized in the manufacture of leaf-shaped blades. These were 

 probably blanks, subsequently specialized as spear heads, 

 arrow points, perforators, and related instruments. 



In August Mr. Holmes proceeded to the Mississipi valley 

 for the purpose of reexamining some mound groups not 

 previously explored with sufficient care. He spent a week in 

 Grant county, Wisconsin, mapping the remarkable groups of 

 effigy mounds for which that region is noted. Subsequently 

 he visited Pulaski county, Arkansas, and made a survey of 

 the Knapp mounds at Toltec station, whence he passed to the 

 vicinity of Hot Springs, Arkansas, to examine the ancient 

 novaculite quames near that place. Apparently the early 

 inhabitants had quaiTied this rock extensively, and had used 

 it in the manufacture of spear heads, aiTOW points, and other 

 articles. The pittings were on a large scale, surpassing even 

 those of the District of Columbia quarries. These Avorks have 

 generally been attributed by white settlers to Spanish gold- 

 hunters of an early period. 



In September and October Mr. Holmes resumed his explora- 

 tions in the District of Columbia and extended the work into 

 the valley of the Potomac between Point of Rocks and Cum- 

 berland, Maryland, and into the Ohio valley as far as Alle- 

 gheny. A visit was next made to the eastern shore of the 

 Chesapeake, and a very interesting Indian village site on 

 Choptank river, 2 miles below Cambridge, was examined. An 

 ancient community of oyster dredgers was once established on 

 a bluff about 20 feet above tide level. Subsequently this site 



