196 a M. Wallace— Flint-implements from the 



clay-slate, and has the ordinary English hatchet-like shape, with 

 slight chippings at its lower cutting-edge, but no side-grooves 

 for the clasp of a handle. The drift-bed, as evidenced by 

 bowlders of granite and thin seams of pebbles interspersed 

 through the clay, lies at a distance of 300 yards from the river, 

 upon a sloping trough of the granitic rock. 



My next discoveries were made in the clay and gravel of the 

 famous Powhatan terrace. This upland has been to me a pro- 

 lific field for the finding of palaeolithic implements. It may 

 be cursorily described as a shelf-like bank on the north side of 

 the James River, at the lower turn of the horseshoe, three- 

 quarters of a mile long by one-third of a mile in breadth. It 

 rises in bluff-like style from the river — with its upper surface 

 at least thirty feet above the ordinary flooding of the tide. 

 For many years the top clay has been used by brick-men who 

 find the bed thicker as it recedes from the bluff and approaches 

 the hills. The following is a section of this shelf-terrace near 

 the river, where the strata appear to lie conformably. 



1. Top soil, with occasional bowlders, 0-6 



2. Brick-earth, yellowish hue, 3 



3. Whitish clay, hard and stiff when dry, 6 



4. Old river gravels, large pebbles at base, 7 



5. Gray-brownish sand compacted, resting upon 



Tertiary earth, depth not ascertained. 



This gives a fair idea of the terrace along its river-front, 



which has been excavated for a railway, say half a mile or 



In the angle formed by the river and Almond Creek, a wide 

 area of the terrace has been laid bare, exposing to view some 

 interesting features of the Drift, The Old River gravel has 

 been shaved off a little below its surface — as much as 450 feet 

 long by 150 feet wide. A large bowlder of quartz, and several 

 bowlders of granite rest upon beds of reddish, rounded gravel, 

 giving the air of having been transported hither by floating 

 :„. "nd deposited in gentle waters. One of the larger group 

 ■ ' " ' " ■ ■ er, and still 



eight feet one way by twelve the other, 

 bears upon one of its sides the mark of an ancient pot-hole. 

 The elevation of this excavated bed above the tide— a few 

 yards distant— is about twenty-four feet. 



Carefully inspecting the upright walls on either hand, I 

 found, in situ, at a depth of four feet below the surface, the 

 implement which is described below. It was lying at the base 

 of the brick-clay — which here is very scant-^n its flat side, 

 as if it had been dropped in the ooze of the marsh mud. In- 

 deed the color is not of the earth from which it was taken, but 

 whitish or porcelaneous, like pebbles from the spring gravel. 



