1881.] fron Implements in an Ancient Mine in N. C. 7 
should be made of the country lying in the Yellowstone valley 
northward into the area of northern glaciation within the British 
line. Such a survey will show whether there was any connection 
between the massive glaciers of the Rocky mountains and the 
great northern ice-sheet ; whether the latter, as it moved down 
the valley of the Missouri, was swelled by the accession of ice- 
streams from these mountains. The main facts could be gleaned 
with comparative ease. -The country, no doubt, is the haunt of 
Crows, Blackfeet, Gros Ventres and other Indian tribes who have 
recently shown little sympathy with the white man. But this is 
a difficulty which patience and tact would overcome. The geo- 
logical harvest is ample, and only waits the advent of some bold 
and skilled observer. 
20: 
THE DISCOVERY OF IRON IMPLEMENTS IN AN 
ANCIENT MINE IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
BY FREDERIC W. SIMONDS. 
Be Western North Carolina are found many evidences of prehis- 
toric mining operations, such as open cuts, tunnels, shafts and 
dumps. The latter are covered with a forest growth of several 
hundred years, and in the excavations has accumulated the débris 
of centuries. 
About ten years ago a new industry was inaugurated in the © 
State, that of mica mining, and strange to say, the best and most 
profitable mines have been those located upon the sites of the 
“old diggings.” In clearing out the ancient works very few 
implements have been found which throw light upon the 
original miners. The opinion, now generally held, is, that they 
belonged to the Mound-builders, whose mounds are also found, 
but sparingly, in the river basins. That this is, for the most part, — 
correct, I think has been clearly shown by Prof. Kerr in his Re- 
port on the Geology of North Carolina for 1875. He there states 
that he learned in a conversation with Col. Whittlesey, and sub- 
sequently from numerous publications on the subject of the 
mounds of the Northwest, that mica was of common occurrence in 
the tumuli of the Mound-builders, among the utensils and orna- 
ments which such rude people are in the habit of inhuming with 
their dead owners. And upon further inquiry, he ascertained that 
cut forms, similar to those found in the mounds were occasionally 
