﻿Report and Observations on Relic Finds. 



57 



the banks rise to the height of thirty or forty feet in some places, 

 forming the only exception to the general character already de- 

 scribed. The ground is all of the drift formation, covering great 

 subterranean water-beds, which give rise to many springs, and 

 when tapped by wells furnish an inexhaustible supply of water. 

 All of this is underlaid by the Helderberg limestone, which ap- 

 pears in a limited space in the bed of one small stream and fur- 

 nishes the only outcrop of stone in the county. When the country 

 was first opened up for settlers, this county became, in springtime, 

 very swampy. All the shallow depressions filled up with water, 

 and the land was considered too flat and low for farming purposes. 

 After the summer these pools dried up, and during the fall the In- 

 dians from the higher lands in Champaign and Logan Counties 

 were accustomed to start fires ahead and follow down through this 

 region in their annual journey to the Hocking Valley for salt. 

 These annual hunts in the wake of forest fires, while aiding the In- 

 dian, left a barren region behind, and most of the timbers of the 

 forest became stunted and knotty in consequence. This fact gave 

 the name of "The Barrens" to a region which is now one of the 

 most fertile and productive in the whole Scioto Valley. So much 

 has been said in order to point out the fact that there were no 

 regular Indian inhabitants, no villages or populous communities of 

 prehistoric people ; and as they were accustomed to use it little, 

 there are almost no relics found on the surface. I know of no re- 

 gion where stone relics are so scarce, and where those found, as a 

 rule, show poorer workmanship. In some of the knolls are gravel, 

 which is sought for in building macadamized roads, and in the 

 gravel banks occasionally are found a few skeletons and a few 

 relics, buried at the depth of a few inches. Nowhere in the State 

 has tile-draining done more good than in Madison County. Year 

 by year the shallow pools have been drained, until now only a few 

 are left. In putting in the tile-drain in such a depression on the 

 farm, the ditchers came on the arrow-head which I show you- 

 The depression in question is almost circular, and is about a quar- 

 ter of a mile in diameter. My earliest recollection of it was a place 

 filled with water in the spring, and in the summer filled with cat- 



