Makch 4, 1898.] 



SCmNGE. 



309 



the north. The bluff is five or six miles in 

 length, and scattered along nearly its entire 

 ■distance are the quarries of various sizes 

 and shapes. The bluif has been caused by 

 a, fault which brought the Dakota sand- 

 stone to the surface. This sandstone has 

 been metamorphosed into a great variety of 

 quartzites. In color they shade from white 

 to nearly black, and from a light pink to a 

 dark red. They are very fine grained and 

 work so easily by chipping that a novice 

 ■can make a very good-looking implement 

 in a few minutes. 



In the preliminary examination, which 

 ■was necessarily very limited, nineteen open- 



Indians secured most of the material to 

 manufacture implements. In place of delv- 

 ing here and there, these quarrymen opened 

 a quarry along the outcropping quartzite 

 and worked it into the bluff, or dug a hole 

 deep enough to reach the valued stone. In 

 all the openings they had evidently main- 

 tained a clean face to work on. The refuse 

 rock was carried back as by modern quarry- 

 men. In fact, one could easily imagine 

 that these quarries were old modern ones. 

 The largest quarries are located near the 

 center of the bluff and near a very small 

 spring. A description of the largest of this 

 group will give a general idea of the exca- 



t 



ings were visited. The nature of the open- 

 ings varied so much that it has been 

 thought best to classify them as follows : 

 1. Superficial ; work of great surface extent 

 where exposed blocks of quartzite have 

 been dug up. 2. Shallow quarries; which 

 ■are quite extensive, but have not been 

 worked to a depth of more than two or 

 three feet. 3. Deep quarries ; worked to a 

 depth, varying from fifteen to twenty feet 

 or more. 4. Tunnels ; but one of this class 

 was seen. 5. Shafts ; resembling the 

 modern mining shaft, but not appearing to 

 be very deep. All of the work has been 

 done in a very systematic manner, and 

 does not resemble the ordinary quarries so 

 ■common in Wyoming, and from which the 



vations. It covers several acres of ground 

 which slopes gently to the north and east. 

 The workmen had commenced the excava- 

 tion on a point, but when operations were 

 suspended the quarry face was several hun- 

 dred feet wide. The ground that has been 

 worked over is covered with irregular 

 mounds of refuse, which in the majority of 

 cases is grass grown. In exposed places, 

 where the wind has had free access, the 

 refuse heaps are as the quarrymen left 

 them. No fragments of rocks were seen 

 that would make a heavy load for one man 

 to carry. Near the old quarry face, which 

 in most places was entirely obliterated, and 

 where the fragments of rock have not been 

 covered with the drifting sand, there were 



