Charles Rau

“ Never but in one case have I discovered any article of European manufacture interred with the dead in whose honor the mound was clearly erected. Upon opening a small earth-mound on the Georgia coast, a few miles below Savannah, I found a clay vessel, several flint arrow-heads, a hand-axe of stone, and a portion of an old-fashioned sword deposited with the decayed bones of the skeleton. ”

“ The division of the European stone age into a period of chipped stone, and a succeeding one of ground or polished stone, or, into the palaeolithic and neolithic periods, seems to be fully borne out by facts, and is likely to remain an uncontroverted basis for future investigation in Europe. In North America chipped as well as ground implements are abundant; yet they occur promiscuously, and thus far cannot be referred respectively to certain epochs in the development of the aborigines of the country. ”

“ According to this survey, the blue clays at the base of the drift contain fragments of wood and trunks of trees, but no fossil remains of animals; but the brown clays above, underlying the Loess, contain remains of the Mammoth, the Mastodon, and the Peccary; and bones of the Mastodon were found in a bed of "local drift," near Alton, underlying the Loess in situ above, and also in the same horizon, stone axes and flint spear-heads, indicating the co-existence of the human race with the extinct mammalia of the Quaternary period. ”

“ Concerning North American flint implements of the European drift type in general, Mr. Stevens expresses himself thus: "The legitimate conclusion at which we may at present arrive, is that implements, in form resembling some of the European palaeolithic types, were made by the aborigines of America at a comparatively late period, and that the people usually termed the 'mound-builders,' were, probably, the makers of these implements." ”

“ Those who advocate a strict classification of North American relics according to earlier or later periods, should bear in mind that mound-building was still in use—if not in Ohio, at least in other parts of the present United States—when the first Europeans arrived, though the practice seems to have been abandoned soon after the colonization of the country by the whites. ”

“ Koch's discovery has been doubted by some, although it is difficult to perceive why he should have made those statements, if not true, at a time when the antiquity of man was not yet discussed, either in Europe or here, and he, therefore, could expect nothing but contradiction, public opinion being totally unprepared for such revelations. ”

“ The greater portion of the bones appeared more or less burned, and there was sufficient evidence that the fire had been kindled by human agency, and with the design of killing the huge creature, which had been found mired in the mud, and in an entirely helpless condition. The animal's fore and hind legs, untouched by the fire, were in a perpendicular position, with the toes attached to the feet, showing that the ground in which the animal had sunk, now a grayish-colored clay, was in a plastic condition when the occurrence took place. ”

“ The tools of Fayetteville, however, are much more handy than those of Clark's Work.
The fact that implements made of the hornstone of Flint Ridge are found in Illinois—a distance of about four hundred miles intervening—is of particular interest, as it shows that the material was quarried for exportation to remote parts of the country. It doubtless formed an article of traffic among the natives, like copper, sea-shells, and other natural productions which they applied to the exigencies of common life or used for personal adornment. ”

“ It gives the object a more definite character than it really possesses, the chipping appearing in the representation far less superficial than it is in the original, which, indeed, has such a shape that it could easily be reduced to a smaller size by blows aimed at its circumference. I have myself scaled off large flat flakes from similarly-shaped pieces of flint, using a small iron hammer and directing my blows against the edge, and have thus become convinced that the further working of objects like that in question could offer no serious difficulties to a practised flint-chipper. ”

“ These flint discs are believed to have been buried as a religious offering, and the peculiar structure of the mound which inclosed them rather favors this opinion, while their enormous number, on the other hand, affords some probability to the view that they constituted a depot or magazine. Many of them are clumsy, and roughly chipped around their edges; and hence it has been suggested that they are no finished implements, but merely rudimentary forms, destined to receive more symmetry of outline by subsequent labor. ”

“ The remarks of Lieutenant-Colonel C. H. Smith on this point are of interest. "Over a considerable part of the eastern side of the great (American) mountain ridge," he says, "more particularly where ancient lakes have been converted into morasses, or have been filled by alluvials, organic remains of above thirty species of mammals, of the same orders and genera, in some cases of the same species, (as in Europe,) have been discovered, demonstrating their existence in a contemporary era with those of the old continent, and under similar circumstances. ”

“ The whole extent of these layers has not been ascertained, but an excavation six feet long and four broad disclosed upward of six hundred of those discs, rudely blocked out of a superior kind of dark flint. I had occasion to examine the specimens from this mound, which were formerly in the collection of Dr. Davis, and have now in my collection a number that belonged to the same deposit. They are either roundish, oval, or heart-shaped, and of various sizes, but on an average six inches long, four inches wide, and from three-quarters to an inch in thickness. ”

“ Koch and the Illinois survey mention flint arrow and spear-heads as well as stone axes as being associated, directly or indirectly, with the remains of extinct animals. These stone axes undoubtedly were ground implements; for, had they differed in any way from the ordinary Indian manufactures of the same class, the fact certainly would have been noticed by the observers. ”

“ Davis sold to the Blackmore Museum among his collection of Indian relics, and hence the author of "Flint Chips" seems to attribute to them a better general character than they really possess. I learn, however, that Mr. Blackmore, during a recent visit to Ohio, has succeeded in recovering a considerable number of the implements of Clark's Work, and thus an opportunity will be afforded again to investigate the true nature of these relics of a bygone people. ”

“ These implements hardly could be used without handles. Fig. 5 represents, in natural size, one of my specimens, which was found on the surface near West Belleville, Saint Clair County, Illinois. The material is a yellowish-brown flint. The edge, it will be seen, is perfectly scraper-like. Inserted into a stout handle, this object would make an excellent scraper. The edge of this specimen is not polished, but it seems as if small particles of the edge had been scaled off by the pressure exerted in the use of the implement. ”