SHELBY COUNTY. 463 
for various purposes, and with more or less light from modern science, 
we did not suspect gravel in a thousand localities where it has been found ; 
we had no indications of it, and when many beds were discovered, there 
were yet no certain marks to point out others, and two generations have 
passed, traveling on mud roads unwillingly, and now, when we are stimu- | 
lated to road-making, and search has been made under strong incentive 
and competition, behold, it is no new discovery we have made—every 
gravel pit isa place of human sepulture. I make the suggestion here, 
that possibly, in a primitive forest, there were some growths which were 
an indication of the nature of the underlying deposits, some which the 
men of the forest had learned to regard as indicating gravel. It is well 
known to us that some plants, some trees, are very choice in regard to 
the kind of soil in which alone they will flourish, especially as retaining 
moisture or not. 
Remains of Human Art.—I did not see as many flint and stone tmple- 
ments among the people in this county as I have in some others, though 
such articles are not uncommon even here. There may be ancient 
mounds in the county, though [did notseeany. Along the Miami River 
and other water-courses are localities where a variety of flint arrow-points 
and spear-points in considerable numbers have from time to time been 
found, though but few seem to have been preserved. Other classes of 
implements, as stone hammers and pestles, seem not to be common, and 
I did not see any place where indications were found which would lead 
any one to suppose that these or other implements had been manufactured 
there. The most favored localities for arrow-points are along the water- 
courses and on the highest points in the county. But the larger num- 
ber are found on the river and its tributaries. It is worth remark that 
the indications in the position of the flints, do not point to an extreme 
antiquity as the time of their manufacture. There are many places 
along our larger water-courses in the west where extensive manufactories 
of arrow-points, stone axes, and pestles, efc., have existed, and where pot- 
tery ware has been manufactured and burned. These localities have 
never before been disturbed by the inroads of the rivers, but are now 
being undermined and washed down for the first time. The implements. 
in all stages of manufacture are found in great numbers; old bark-peelers 
and pestles, which had been injured by use, or from some fault in original 
construction did not give satisfaction, were undergoing repair or remodel- 
ing; heaps of chips are found, and great numbers of lap-stones, hammers 
in connection with hearths, and remains of fire together with crockery, 
are found in these localities at no great depth below the present surface 
of the soil, where over-flows are still a common occurrence. A very re- 
