THE GEOLOGIST. 



These questions have reached us too late to say more than that as yet no very 

 accurate records have been made of the soils in which these instruments have 

 been imbedded in the countries named. Some are undoubtedly of the historic, 

 others may be of the geological period. We may refer our correspondent to vol. i. 

 of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge (Washington, 1848). In this 

 work, in an article on the " Ancient Monuments of the Mississip])i Yalley," by 

 Messrs. Squier and Davis, there is figured, at p. 211, a spear-head, apparently 

 similar in shape to the specimen found by Mr. Wetherell at Hornsey, and 

 figured in Mr. Mackie's Geological Diagram No. YI. (fig. 7). At page 214 

 are figured on a very reduced scale three implements, which appear, as far as 

 one can judge of the engravings, to be of like form to the so-called flint 

 "celts," (but which are more probably spear- heads) from the drift. In WTiting 

 of these, the authors say : — 



" It is a singular fact, however, that few weapons of stone or other materials 

 are discovered in sepulchral mounds ; most of the remains found with the 

 skeletons are such evidently as were deemed ornamental, or recognised as 

 badges of distinction. Some of the altar or sacrificial mounds, on the other 

 hand, have the deposits within them almost entirely made up of finished arrow- 

 and spear-points, intermixed with masses of the unmanufactured material. 

 From one altar were taken several bushels of finely-worked lance-heads of 

 milky quartz, nearly all of which ha^ been broken up by the action of fire. In 

 another mound an excavation six feet long and four broad disclosed upwards of 

 six hundred spear-heads, or discs of hornstone, riideljj hloched out, and the deposit 

 extended indefinitely on every side. Some of these are represented in the accom- 

 panying engraving. They are necessarily much reduced. Tlie originals are 

 about six inches long and four broad, and weigh not far from two pounds each. 

 Some specimens from this deposit are nearly round, but most are of the shape 

 of those here figured.* We are wholly at a loss respecting their piu'poses, 

 unless they were designed to be worked into the more elaborate implements to 

 which allusion has been made, and were thus roughly Mocked out for the 

 greater ease of transportation from the quarries. With these relics were 

 found several large nodules of similar material from which portions had been 

 chipped off, exposing a nucleus, around which the accretion seems to have taken 

 pjace. These nodules are covered to the depth of half an inch with a calcareo- 

 siliceous deposit, white, and of great hardness. Such nodules are found in tlie 

 secondary limestone formations. Several localities are known from which the 

 material may have been obtained. One of these, named " Tlint Ridge," exists 

 in the counties of Muskingum and Licking, in Ohio. It extends for many 

 miles, and countless pits are to be observed throughout its entire length, from 

 which the stone was taken. These excavations are often ten or fourteen feet 

 deep, and occupy acres in extent. It is possible that the late as well as tlie 

 more remote races worked these quarries. Like the red pij^e-stone of the 

 Coteau des Frairies, this locality may have been the resort of numerous tribes 

 —a neutral ground, where the war-hatchet for the time was buiied, and all 

 rivalries and animosities forgotten." 



This topic is one which we shall follow further out in our intended series of 

 papers on the_"Eirst Traces of Man," which we commenced in the "Geolo- 

 gist" in vol. ii., p. 432, and which we intend very shortly to resume. 



* Flatly pear-shnped, or more or less pointed. 



