SHELBY COUNTY. 463 



for various purposes, and with more or less light from modern science, 

 we did not suspect gravel in a thousand localities where it has been found ; 

 we had no indications of it, and when many beds were discovered, there 

 were yet no certain marks to point out others, and two generations have 

 passed, traveling on mud roads unwillingly, and now, when we are stimu- 

 lated to road-making, and search has bfeen made under strong incentive 

 and competition, behold, it is no new discovery we have made — every 

 gravel pit is a place of human sepulture. I make the suggestion here, 

 that possibly, in a primitive forest, there were some growths which were 

 an indication of the nature of the underlying deposits, some which the 

 men of the forest had learned to regard as indicating gravel. It is well 

 known to us that some plants, some trees, are very choice in regard to 

 the kind of soil in which alone they will flourish, especially as retaining 

 moisture or not. 



Remains of Human Art. — I did not see as many flint and stone imple- 

 ments among the people in this county as I have in some others, though 

 such articles are not uncommon even here. There may be ancient 

 mounds in the county, though I did not see any. Along the Miami River 

 and other water-courses are localities where a variety of flint arrow^points 

 and spear-points in considerable numbers have from time to time been 

 found, though but few seem to have been preserved. Other classes of 

 implements, as stone hammers and pestles, seem not to be common, and 

 I did not see any place where indications were found which would lead 

 any one to suppose that these or other implements had been manufactured 

 there. The most favored localities for arrow-points are along the water- 

 courses and on the highest points in the county. But the larger num- 

 ber are found on the river and its tributaries. It is worth remark that 

 the indications in the position of the flints, do not point to an extreme 

 antiquity as the time of their manufacture. There are many places 

 along our larger water-courses in the west where extensive manufactories 

 of arrow-points, stone axes, and pestles, etc., have existed, and where pot- 

 tery ware has been manufactured and burned. These localities have 

 never before been disturbed by the inroads of the rivers, but are now 

 being undermined and washed down for the first time. The implements 

 in all stages of manufacture are found in great numbers; old bark-peelers 

 and pestles, which had been injured by use, or from some fault in original 

 construction did not gi^e satisfaction, were undergoing repair or remodel- 

 ing; heaps of chips are found, and great numbers of lap-stones, hammers 

 in connection with hearths, and remains of fire together with crockery, 

 are found in these localities at no great depth below the present surface 

 of the soil, where over-flows are still a common occurrence. A very re- 



