considerable age; as does an oak tree nearly ten feet in circumference, growing on the top of the wall. In clearing out this pit we could appreciate the patience and industry of the aboriginal excavators. The clay subsoil was as hard and tough as frozen ground; frequently half a dozen blows with a pick were required to break off a clod as large as a man's hand. To remove it with primitive tools seems almost an impossibility. The central part of the pit was filled with material that had washed in from the sides. Several days of steady digging were required, by three men accustomed to such work, to reach the surface of the flint stratum, which was found at a depth of nine feet. A hole five by eight and one-half feet had been worked through; clearing this out, we found the layer to be forty inches thick. It rested directly upon a solid bluish limestone. Both the flint and the limestone showed that they had been subjected to an intense heat. The flint was very solid where not burnt, translucent, and a beautiful light-blue in color. its top, on a corner formed by two seams, was a saucer-shaped depression between three and four inches deep, in the bottom of which was a handful of very fine chips; just such as would result from repeated blows with a large hammer-stone, several of which were found scattered through the entire depth cleared out. One of them weighed nearly or quite a hundred pounds.

On

"Careful observation of this pit-and others as wellenables us to follow the prehistoric quarryman in his labors. He selected a spot where he thought the superincumbent earth. not heavy enough to render the task of removing it too tedious, but at the same time was of ample thickness to prevent injury to the stone from weathering. He then sunk a pit, as large as he wished, to the surface of the flint. On this he made a fire; and when the stone was hot he threw water on it, causing it to shatter. Throwing aside the fragments, he repeated the process until he penetrated the underlying limestone to a depth which allowed him sufficient room to work conveniently. The top and freshly made face of the flint was thickly plastered with potter's clay, after which fire and water were again utilized for clearing away the limestone until a cavity was formed beneath the flint layer. Thus a projecting ledge would be left, from which the burnt parts were knocked off with heavy stone hammers until the unaltered flint was exposed; in the same manner, blocks of this were procured for converting into implements. Where the flint was well suited for the purpose intended, or was easily worked, the excavation was carried along in the form of a trench, the waste material being thrown to the rear; under less favorable conditions the spot was abandoned."

Vol. XXX-8.

Our examination of the quarries upon Flint Ridge, made with a view of ascertaining the method of quarrying, does not bear out and verify the findings of Mr. Fowke concerning the use of fire as an operating agent. On the other hand, the evidence found concerning the use of fire as an agent in quarrying the flint was purely negative, and I doubt very much if fire was used at all as an aid in removing the flint from its natural bed. I will go into detail concerning several of the sites examined, quoting from my field notes made at the time of the excavations.

After a general examination of the “Ridge” in company with my assistant, Mr. Shetrone, we marked a number of places for examination, and this plan was systematically carried out. The first pit for examination was located in the woods north and east of the blacksmith-shop, about 300 feet north from the road running east from the cross-roads. The property is owned by a coal company with headquarters at Newark, and is under the direct supervision of Attorney R. E. Jones, who aided us in every way to make our work successful.

The pit was selected with a view of finding the full vertical ledge of flint exposed as the aboriginal quarryman had left it. In this we were partly successful, the vertical ledge of flint measuring three feet and seven inches, while one foot and eleven inches of flint had been removed from the top surface. for a space of six feet by eight feet. The flint on the top appears in nodular-like flat masses, from two to three and onehalf feet in diameter, and the ancient quarryman, taking advantage of the seams between the nodules, was able to work downward until the more desirable flint was exposed. The top of this quarry was covered with about seven inches of soil, accumulated during the more than a century since the early settler came to occupy the land. The top surface of the quarry was more or less irregular, caused by the early quarryman following the cracks or seams, or the lines of least resistance in his operations. Not the slightest indication was found in this quarry to show that fire had been used to supplement the hammerstones, several of which, varying in size from about a pound to one weighing upward of twenty-five pounds, were found in the pit. The hammerstones were made of granite and quartzite.

General indications shows that wedges, perhaps made of wood or horn, were used in dislodging the desired pieces of flint.

Fig. 4 shows the face of the quarry where the flint is three feet and seven inches in thickness. On the top of the flint lies a large hammerstone of granite, weighing about twenty-five pounds, which was found at the bottom of the pit. A close inspection of this cut will show the cracks and seams found in the flint, which we later quarried out to ascertain why this part of the stratum had not been utilized. We followed the seams, using iron wedges instead of wood and iron hammers instead of stone, and thus were able to effect our purpose. The flint was found to be practically worthless for making into artifacts, and the entire mass of three feet and seven inches in vertical height, two feet in thickness, and three to four feet in length would have been quarried out and cast aside in order to carry forward the quarrying operations, with a vertical wall or nearly so to work from. The ancient quarryman apparently did not perform such arduous labor to secure the coveted flint unless absolutely necessary, as was found to be true in many of the quarries examined in the various sections of "Flint Ridge".

We also quarried samples of the good flint exposed on the top of this quarry and found the prevailing color to be a light blue-gray, translucent in thin sections, but frequently varying in color from a dep red and yellow with shades of lilac. In many instances, seams of translucent chalcedony extended into the mass of the flint, sometimes only about one-eighth of an inch. apart, giving the flint the appearance of banded agate. However, this banded flint when struck with a heavy hammer would separate into needle-like forms which made the flint worthless as far as primitive man was concerned. The lilac-colored flint from this quarry was often filled with very small geodes of quartz crystals, which did not greatly interfere with its use as implement-making material.

Adjoining the lilac-colored flint was a slightly yellow-colored flint containing much chalcedony and larger clusters of quartz crystals. The ancient quarryman had uncovered a cluster more than six inches in diameter, the crystals ranging in size up to one-half inch in diameter, colored a light amethyst, and very

in thickness.

beautiful. Another very interesting deposit of flint, known as the brecciated form, was found in the highly colored red flint in this quarry. These deposits are not much larger than a man's fist, are usually oblong in general form, and are made up of small angular fragments of flint which seem to have been held in suspension in clear or slightly colored chalcedony.

After the work of examination of Pit No. I was completed, a good opportunity to try the experiment of quarrying by the use of fire presented itself, for here was the bed of flint uncovered and an abundance of dry wood at hand. The fire was kindled, and was kept burning for two hours, producing an intense heat on the underlying face of the flint. The fire was then removed and two buckets of cold water were thrown upon the surface. I fully expected the flint to break in large pieces, but it merely checked and cracked into small pieces to the depth of perhaps half an inch. After the conclusion of this experiment it was apparent that fire as a direct agent in the quarrying of flint was perhaps not effective. In this connection I may state that at no time during the examination of more than twenty-five of the pits and quarries in this section was there evidence of the use of fire in the quarrying of flint. In several instances small amounts of charcoal were found in the pits, but so sparingly as to indicate that fire was in use around the quarry but not as a direct agent in quarrying the flint.

The next quarry of special interest was No. 3. This quarry is located not far from the outcrop along the cleared field on the Coal Company's property, perhaps a little more than half a mile directly north-east from the blacksmith-shop. The pit was seventeen feet long and fifteen feet wide, and at no point in the quarry had the bottom of the flint been reached. Near the center of the quarry, to the west, a projection of flint extended almost across the quarry. Examination showed that the deposit was a very compact variety of yellow flint, practically devoid of seams, which baffled our own efforts at quarrying with our modern chisels and hammers. We were very desirous of securing large samples of this highly-colored flint, and preparing the stone for a charge of dynamite, were able to secure good specimens of both yellows and reds. Many instances exist on the