48 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



With such simple contrivances were made all arrow-heads, knives, and other 

 flint implements of any size or material. 



While flint that has long been exposed to the atmosphere can be 

 converted into serviceable weapons, it is too brittle to allow of delicate 

 work. For thin, symmetrical pieces, especially those of large size, 

 unweathered stone was essential. This fact was well known to the peo- 

 ple having use for them; and in almost every county along the outcrop 

 of the Coal Measures, from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, are quarries from 

 which the coveted material was obtained. The largest are in Licking, 

 Coshocton, and Perry counties, the first, known as "Flint Ridge," being 

 one of the most extensive in the country. For several miles the surface 

 is honey-combed with pits and trenches; thousands of car-loads of earth 

 and stone have been excavated. In some places more than ten feet in 

 thickness of clay, tough as that in a traveled road, was removed in order 

 to reach the flint. Piles of refuse rock are scattered everywhere, being 

 greatest where it lay nearest the surface. 



After the earth had been cleared away over a space as large as needed, 

 the flint was shattered by large fires made on it and kept burning until 

 the underlying bed of limestone was penetrated; water probably being 

 thrown on occasionally to hasten the crumbling. All the fragments were 

 next thrown out, the upper portion of the flint stratum was thickly coated 

 with clay, and intense heat applied to the bottom and to the limestone. 

 The top, left projecting, was then pounded off with heavy boulders from 

 the adjacent surface, and broken into small pieces ; most of which, after 

 being partially chipped into shape, were carried away to be completed at 

 the leisure of the artificer. A great many well finished specimens have 

 been collected here, but they are few as compared with the immense 

 quantity of rejected pieces which m the course of the work were broken 

 or found to contain some flaw that rendered them worthless. 



Nearly all the knives, arrows, or spears, found on or near Flint 

 Ridge, which have barbs, stems, or tangs, are made of flint from some 

 other locality, while implements of the native material are almost invaria- 

 bly of the triangular or leaf-shape pattern; and the former are far in excess 

 of the latter. But the objects of Flint Ridge stone found farther from 

 home — and they occur from New York to Tennessee, and from Blue Ridge 

 to Illinois — usually resemble in form other worked flints found in the 

 same localities. It would thus appear that the superior quality of this 

 stone for various purposes was widely known; and, as objects made from 

 it are found alike in the largest mounds and on village sites occupied by 

 Indians within a century, that this excellence has long been recognized. 



So far as the very limited investigations signify, what is said of this 

 particular quarry in regard to methods of work and disposition of material 

 is true of others. No trace of digging tools is apparent; the earth seems 

 to have been removed with wood or other perishable substances; the flint 



