Relics by the Wagon Load.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 19 December 1891, Page 2

Relics by the Wagon Load.

■ ♦ Under the direction of Prof Putnam, Chief of the Department of Ethnology, of the Worlds Columbian Exposition, a party of men has been making extensive excavations of the pre-historic mounds in Ohio and Indiana, and according to reports, received from time to time, most gratifying success has been met with. Many skulls, skeletons, copper hatchets, pipes, ornaments, altars of burnt clay weighing 400 to 500 pounds, flint spear heads, etc., have been secured. In one mound, situated near Anderson Station, Indiana, 7,282 flint spear, heads and knires were discovered. The bulk was so great that it took four horses and a large corn wagon to haul the flints to camp. The total weight was a trifle over 4,700 pounds. The implements were found in a layer one foot in thickness, extending over a space twenty by thirty feet. Many of them were over eight or ten inches in length ; some of them even larger, while the majority ranged from seven to eight inches. They are made of gray flint found only in Indiana, and show that there were from sixty to seventy flakes detached from each one in order to fashion it, The largest find of flint implements made in one place heretofore in America did not exceed 1,800 specimens. In one of the caverns occupied by primitive man in the valley of the Seine, below Paris, 1,800 implements were found in one deposit. As it is reasonable to conclude that nearly one day's work was expended on each implement, and as each one exhibits almost absolute perfection as far as flint chipping is concerned, the find will be of special

value to ethnological research.