1 
114 “ Turtle-Back ” Celts, in District of Columbia. [February, 
through the repeated plowing, harrowing and the effects of rain, 
much of the original super-stratum have been removed, exposing 
the older layer of stratified sand and river gravel. With the lat¬ 
ter we find more of the rude implements, which consist of celts, 
spear-heads, arrow-heads and scrapers. 
In all of the localities referred to, a peculiar variety of quartzite 
has been employed, which was found to exist in the “ cobble- 
stone” drift in the District of Columbia. At Reading we do not 
find it, nor within forty miles of that city, to my knowledge. In 
each of these regions, the specimens partake of a character of 
workmanship that is rude and primitive in the extreme, and just 
such implements as might reasonably be supposed to be required 
by a rude and primitive people. 
Assuming that such a race preceded the Indians— of which 
there is scarcely any doubt—several important points present 
themselves which are difficult of solution, viz: First, the length 
of time that elapsed between the disappearance of one race and 
the appearance of their successors ; second , at what approximate 
period the manufacturers of the rude implements occupied these 
regions ; and third, whether the colony occupying the region 
about the Eastern Branch, was of immediate tribal connection of 
those whose remains survive at Reading ? 
In answer to the first point, nothing can be definitely known, 
though it would appear from slight geological evidence, that con¬ 
siderable time had elapsed. Various traditions have been handed 
down to us regarding a race corresponding to the Eskimo, which, 
if accepted, would allow scarcely any time for the soil to have 
been without occupants; for that race was, according to said tra¬ 
dition, driven northward by the encroachments of the Indians. 
Regarding the second point, the locality in the eastern portion 
of Reading furnishes the greatest antiquity. Here the original 
stratum, in one section of which implements have been found in 
such a condition and under circumstances to lead us to infer that 
they had been buried there by the gradual accumulation of detri¬ 
tus from the mountains ; but whether any specimens occur in the 
stratum of drift, at any distance under this upper accumulation, is 
not known. The excavation, showing the drift stratum at forty 
feet below the surface, is nearer the mountain, and the mass of 
earth and debris may have required but a short time for deposi¬ 
tion geologically. Beyond this elevation the valley was, at some 
