Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1882-11-03

|
They are larger, much ruder In finish,
and can ut once bo recognized as essen
TALLY the same as those OF true flint
found in the similar vale, Of European
rivers. As has been remarked of them,
"the types of the two classes Of imple-
ments are remarkably similar. To
whatever uses and purposes the
European implements were capa-
BILE of being applied, l regard
these Delaware objects rs being
equally well adapted. The same gem
eral description applies to both classes
of implements alike"
If now we have been able to show
that man existed on the Atlantic Coast
OF America so long ago rs the close of
the great Ice Age. what of his relation
ship TO the present peoples of tho
worldp OF his origin, nothing need
here be said. Whether he originated
in America or was migrant from
another continent it is vain to con-
je ture. We know him only rs the ear
liest and most primitive of mankind,
and. content with SO distant starting
point, can we trace his subsequent his
toryp
Our principal clue to this, strangely
enough, Is the material of which the
rude implements used by him are made.
This, with scarcely an exception, is
mineral called argillite, defined by
Prof. Wadsworth, OF Cambridge, to be
an argilaceous rock, which is greatly
indurated, breaks with con hoidal
fracture, and has no trace OF cleavage.
Therefore, it is much more like flint
than slate, with which it should not be
confounded.
| Now, if we wander over the stretches
of field and meadow that skirt the river
of to-day, it will often be our good for
tune to gather here and there delicate
arrow-points of quartz and jasper; per-
haps we may find polished celt of
marvellous symmetry, fragments of pot
terry, or tastefully-carved stone pend
ant.
Place any or all of these by the side
of the rude objects from the underlying
gravels. and the impression is at once
made that they are not the handiwork
of the same people-at least are not
representatives of the same degree of
Gu ture. There is an evident break in
the chain of progress as represented by
the objects before you. There is moth
ing in the rude articles from the gravel
foreshadowing the elaborate stone
work gathe ed from the surface sol $.
| If, however, we institute more care
full sea ch, and systemati ally examine
the ea tn everything the g gavel, we shall
lind that besides these beautiful pro-
ductIons OF the recent Indians, there oc-
cur in some p aces a ruder series of stone
implements, of better make and more va
ried shapes, as compared with those
from the gravel, but lar less elaborate
in finish than the surface-found objects
ofquartz and asper. These intermediate
forms, if they may be SO called, like
those from the gravel, are also made of
argillte, and, to some extent, OF slaty
mineral. They indicate marked ad-
vance over the larger weapons of earlier
times, and are evidently q decided i'm
provement over the most primitive of
all weapons. They clearly represent q
higher stage of culture, yet iall far
short of the average productions of the
Indian worker in Hint. Admitting this,
if these intermediate objects are closely
ated with the known relics of the
Indians, we are not warranted in separat-
ing them solely on the ground OF in
ferior skill in their manufacture. But
We uiO hpb SuIlcu ullOu W uo tlS.
Fortunately the careful study in the
field of thousands of these objects shows
that they are often found alone and
deeper in the ground than true Indian
relics, as when virgin soil has been care.
tully examined with the view of de.
termining this point; and what may be
held Us of greater importance is the fact
that where we find arrow heads oil
jasper and quartz have been made,
there do not occur any chips or nodules
of argillite, showing that it was then
a mineral not in common use by the
Indians, although, OF course, its oc.
casional use is probable. Then, too,
these argillite specimens are greatly
weathered, and show by this feature
their great antiquity; some, indeed, SC
weathered as to be scarcely recognize
able. Altogether, there is every prob
ability that by whomsoever made these
ruder argillite objects antedate similar
implements made of tlint-like material
1t would appear then from careful
/ study of all these relics of by-gone races
more particularly in regard TO the cir
, cumstances under which they occur
that we have evidence in America, first
, of race more primitive in all respect;
and lower in culture than any now ex
} isting, and which was contemporary
, with the mastodon and other extinc
animals. Secondly, of man in more
advanced stage, armed with more skill
fully wrought weapons.
The association of man and the masto
, don is little startling perhaps, but il
no unwarTanted fancy of the too en-
} thusiastic geologist. We are apt to con
, slider the mastodon as creature of SC
!, distant time in the unrecorded pas
that man must necessarily have ap
peared much later upon the scene. The
, truth is, comparatively speaking, the
animal so recently became extinct thai
! in all probability our historic red indians
J were acquainted with it. If there be nc
question of the authenticity of the ele
phant pipes found in Iowa, then un.
questionably the elephant was living in
North America not more than one thou
sand years ago. However this may be-
in the distant long ago of the Ice Age
the mastodon certainly existed, and
with him that primitive man who fabri
Gated the rude implements we have de-
. scribed. The bones of the anima
and the weapons of the man liz
side by side, deep down in the gravel.
deposited by floods from melting
glaciers, and it is scarcely a stretch o.
the imagination TO picture the Della
ware as at times n solidly frozen stream
so firmly ice-bound, indeed, that the
mastodon might pass in safety overit-
not cautiously, even, but with the quicl
trot OF the angry elephant.
These people remained long in pos
session OF our shores. but how long, OF
how recently they were driven away
we have no means of determining; and
lastly, we have the historical evidence
as well as the abundant relics that they
! left, of the Indians, whom we may cal
the true clippers of flint.
Thus it will be seen that what W.
have considered as the evidence of two
races, occupying this continent success
RiYnlY. is larOelv based nnLha two kind