Stratified Drift of the vicinity of Richmond, Va. 197 



It has been split in two by a single blow of the workman's ham- 

 mer along its longer axis. There are two clearly-marked side- 

 grooves obviously designed for being wrapped by withes or 

 fastened in a haft. The fractured face has been worn a little 

 less smooth than the natural crust of the pebble, and the flak- 

 iugs at the sides and edges look worn as if by being rubbed in 

 gravelly beds. 



This implement does not materially differ, except in the 

 peculiar coloring of its outside, from some in my collection 

 from the surface. I regard it as a most interesting specimen 

 from the drift, as it appears to link the discoveries of the older 

 gravels with those of the immediate surface. Two other 

 strange-looking tools were taken by me from the gravel four 

 and eight feet below the surface. Both of them are hoe-like in 

 structure. From the dumps which serve to ballast the track of 

 the railway, I picked up quite a number of worked pebbles, 

 which evidently came from this bed. 



Lest I might be deceived as to the archaeological value of 

 these discoveries, I requested Judge Clopton, who had mani- 

 fested a warm interest in my researches, to accompany me on 



^ver-gravels severaJ tlmt-ctiips, Dut no 

 well-defined forms. Below this point a few paces, I had previ- 

 ously picked out of a gully a beautiful disk of quartz, which, 

 being crusted with the bowlder clay, I concluded belonged to 

 a bed of that formation close by. It was originally a flat, 

 round pebble, which had been struck into its present form by 

 a skillful hand. The face which retains the natural crust, sug- 

 gests the idea of its having been flattened by grinding ice 

 under heavy pressure. One third of its periphery has been 

 chipped to a sharp, jagged edge, as if for the purpose of 

 barking trees or bruising bones. It may have been hafted — 

 but it is more likely that it was used directly by hand. It is a 

 little larger and thicker than a biscuit of hard tack. 



The most important discovery of the day's excursion was re- 

 served for the close. A few paces below Main street, in a deep 

 cut of the York Eiver road, and high above the highest water- 

 mark of the river, among many imperfect indications, Judge 

 Clopton was the first to notice a" brownish looking flint, stuck 

 fast in the cemented gravel, eight feet below the surface. It 

 was lying with its point on a downward slide, as if it had 

 acquired that position by a landslip over the Tertiary beds. 



The shelf of land, from which this unique spear-head was 

 taken, is distant about 150 yards from the river-shore, and 



