INDIAN QUARRIES; BEGINNING OF MY WORK IK PINEY BRANCH, D. 0. 
In July 1889, at the instance of the Director of the 
Geological Survey, I resigned my place in that organization 
to accept a place as archaeologist, under the same direction, 
in the Bureau of Ethnology, It was intended that in the 
near future I should begin archaeological investigations 
along the Atlantic coast and I resolved to commence work at 
home - literally at home - for one of the most promising 
sites for archaeological research in the United States was 
only one and a quarter miles from my own doorstep in Wash¬ 
ington, I allude to the quarry workshops of the local tribes 
in the Valley of Piney Branch, 
But, aside from the convenience of the locality, there 
were other good reasons for beginning the work here. The 
relics found have a direct bearing upon questions of the 
early occupation of this continent - an occupation believed 
by many to have preceded that of the Indian. The questions 
involved are of the utmost importance and demand the fullest 
attention. The deposits of the refuse of stone shaping 
operations are of great extent and of unknown depth. 
In September 1889 I began excavating on the Piney 
Branch site. A trench was carried across the principal 
group of sites, which had a width on the forest covered slope 
of hundreds of feet. The methods of quarrying and working 
