Haynes.] 440 [November 7, 



This is all that the early writers have to tell us upon this ques- 

 tion, so far as I am aware, and we will now proceed to relate what 

 light archaeology has been able to shed upon the subject. 



Prof. Charles Rau, the learned archaeologist of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, was the first to direct attention to a class of stone 

 implements, remarkable alike for their large size and their superior 

 workmanship, which in his judgment unquestionably were used 

 by the Indians for purposes of agriculture. 1 They are found most 

 frequently in the western states, are made out of flint of a very 

 fine quality, and are of two quite different shapes. The first are 

 spades, oval-shaped plates often more than a foot in length, by 

 five inches or more in breadth, and about three-fourths of an inch 

 thick, flat on one side and slightly convex on the other, and 

 worked to quite a sharp edge all around. The second are hoes, 

 semi-circular in shape, of which the largest are six inches, or a 

 little more, long, by as many broad, and about an inch thick, and 

 with the lower round end worked to a sharp edge. At the upper 

 end near the top of this latter kind are two notches, one on 

 each side, by which it was fastened to a handle. " If the shape 

 of the implements described did not indicate their original use, 

 the peculiar traces of wear which they exhibit would furnish al- 

 most conclusive evidence of the manner in which they have been 

 employed ; for that part with which the digging was done ap- 

 pears, notwithstanding the hardness of the material, perfectly 

 smooth as if glazed, and slightly striated in the direction in which 

 the implement penetrated the ground." Specimens of these inter- 

 esting objects of both sorts are here for your examination. In a 

 subsequent article Dr. Rau gives an account of several large de- 

 posits of such implements which have been met with in different 

 localities. 2 One found in Illinois, just opposite the city of St. 

 Louis, contained seventy-five ; and another at Racine, Wis., about 

 thirty. A remarkable one was discovered by Messrs. Squier and 

 Davis in the course of their exploration of one of the so-called 

 " sacrificial mounds " situated on Paint Creek, Rose Co., Ohio. 

 " This mound contained, instead of the altar usually found in this 

 class of earth-works, an enormous number of flint disks standing 

 on their edges and arranged in two layers one above the other at 



i Smithsonian Report, 1863, p. 379. 2 Smithsonian Report, 1868, p. 401. 



