to speak of a North American palaeolithic and neolithic period. In the new world, therefore, the human contemporary of the Mastodon and the Mammoth, it would seem, was more advanced in the manufacture of stone weapons than his savage brother of the European drift period, a circumstance which favors the view that the extinct large mammalia ceased to exist at a later epoch in America than in Europe. 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. But their period of duration in the new world may have been prolonged to dates of a subsequent time, since the Pachyderms of the United States, as well as those of the Pampas of Brazil, are much more perfect; and, in many cases, possess characters ascribed to bones in a recent state. Alligators and crocodiles, moreover, continue to exist in latitudes where they endure a winter state of torpidity beneath ice, as an evidence that the great Saurians in that region have not yet entirely worked out their mission; whereas, on the old continent they had ceased to exist in high latitudes long before the extinction of the great Ungulata."[5]

Flint implements of the European "drift type," however, are by no means scarce in North America, although they cannot (thus far) be referred to any particular period, but must be classed with the other chipped and ground implements in use among the North American aborigines during historical times.

Fig. 2.

In the first place I will mention certain leaf-shaped flint implements which have been found in mounds and on the surface, as well as in deposits below it. They are comparatively thin, of regular outline, and exhibit well-chipped edges all around the circumferences. On the whole, they are among the best North American flint articles which have fallen under my notice. The specimens found by Messrs. Squier and Davis in a mound of the inclosure called Mound City, on the Scioto River, some miles north of Chillicothe, Ohio, belong to this class. Most of them were broken, but a few were found entire, one of which is represented in half-size by Fig. 100 on page 211 of the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." This specimen measures four inches in length and about three inches across the broad rounded end. I have a still larger one, consisting of a reddish mottled flint, which was found on the surface in Jefferson County, Missouri. The annexed full-size drawing, Fig. 2, shows its outline. The edge on the right side is a little damaged by subsequent fractures, but for the sake of greater distinctness I have represented it as perfect. The finest leaf-shaped implements which I have had occasion to examine, are in the possession of Mr. M. Cowing, of Seneca Falls, New York. The owner told me he had more than a hundred of them, which were all derived from a locality in the State of New York, where they were accidentally discovered, forming a deposit under the surface. Mr. Cowing, who is constantly engaged in collecting and buying up Indian relics, refused to give me any information concerning the place and precise character of the deposit, basing his refusal on the ground that a few of these implements were still in the hands of individuals in the neighborhood, and that he would reveal nothing in relation to the deposit until he had obtained every specimen originally belonging to it. I am, therefore, unable to give any particulars, and must confine myself to the statement that the specimens shown to me present in general the outline of the original of Fig. 2, though they are a little smaller; and that they are thin, sharp-edged, and exquisitely wrought, and consist of a beautiful, variously-colored flint, which bears some resemblance to chalcedony.

Concerning the use or uses of North American leaf-shaped articles, I am hardly prepared to give a definite opinion, though I think it probable that they served for purposes of cutting. They were certainly not intended for spear-heads, their shape being ill-adapted for that end; nor do I think that they were used as scrapers, as other more massive implements of a kindred character probably were, of which I shall speak hereafter.

The aborigines were in the habit of burying articles of flint in the ground, and such deposits, sometimes quite large, have been discovered in various parts of the United States. These deposits consist of articles representing various types, among which I will mention the leaf-shaped implements in the possession of Mr. Cowing; the agricultural tools found at East Saint Louis, Illinois, of which I have given an account in the Smithsonian report for 1868; and the rude flint articles of an elongated oval shape, which were found about 1860 on the bank of the Mississippi, between Carondelet and Saint Louis, Missouri, and doubtless belonged to a deposit. I have described them in the above-named Smithsonian report, (p. 405,) and have also given there a drawing of one of the specimens in my possession. This drawing has been reproduced by Mr. E. T. Stevens, on page 441 of his valuable work entitled "Flint Chips," (London, 1870,) with remarks tending to show that the specimen does not represent an unfinished implement, as I am inclined to believe, but a complete one. I must admit that my drawing is not a very good one. 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. My collection, moreover, contains several smaller flint objects of similar shape, which are undoubtedly the rudiments of arrow and spear-heads, and I may add that I obtained a few from places where the manufacture of such weapons was carried on.

Yet the most important deposit of flint implements resembling certain types of the European drift, is that discovered by Messrs. Squier and Davis during their researches in Ohio. They have described this interesting find in the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," and a résumé of their account was given by me in the Smithsonian report for 1868, (p. 404.) The implements in question, I stated, occurred in one of the so-called sacrificial mounds of Clark's Work, on North Fork of Paint Creek, Ross County, Ohio. This flat, but very broad mound contained, instead of the hearth usually found in this class of earth-structures, an enormous number of flint discs, standing on their edges and arranged in two layers, one above the other, at the bottom of the mound. 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