The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-11-25
sxxx,,,>xIIILLICOTUE,

&slxM x1x mound builders and pre-
historic man as Southern Ohio and for
this area the Scioto Valley is probably
! the richest. One of the unanswerable
questions about the aborigines is, Why
did they make so many implements of
stone? And after they had made them
at such great expense ST time and Ia
Dor, why were they SO careless with
them? The great abundance of these
relics is to many psychologists the
greatest mystery about them. Fields
which have been carefully cleaned
| year after year still turn up fresh spec
linens after every plowing. while every
| meadow put into cultivation opens up
q fresh source of supply.
Gerard Fowke, one of the best au
| thorities to-day. considers this abun'
dance of aboriginal stone implements
most perpiexing puzzle. Did the
aborignes have such disregard of
work and time that they preferred to
make new implement rather than
| hunt for q lost one? Or did they have
q superstitious fear of using what had
belonged to a previous generation?
Does this abundance imply popula-
! ton so numerous that the loss Of even
| this great number of specimens was
considered a trivial matter? Does 1t
mean that the users were forced to mi
CRATE so unexpectedly that they were
unable to take their possessions along
with them, or did they gradually be-
come extinct in the neighborhood
where these remains are found? And,
in either event, what led to this result? ?
Was 1t famine? Was it plague? Was
it the sudden encroachment OF an ov-
erwhelming force of implacable ene-
mics?
These are questions which 1t is
thought may never be answered with
any certainty and they certainly can
not be in the present state of knowl-
edge regarding the aborlglnes. Ger
tain questions concerning them can,
however. be answered. 1t can be told
where they received their material,
and-most interesting of all-how they
fashioned it into the shape they de-
sired.
This portion of the Scloto Valley was
particularly rich in the stones most
coveted When hard. tough, heavy
stone was needed, the nearest gravel
pit on the shores Of the nearest stream
would yield n piece of granite or dia-
mite. The searcher had only to select
piece which approached in shade
the article he wished to make. Slate
for ornaments and pipes could be
found in the glacial drifts; but for the
great bulk of his implements, espect-
ally for his cutting ones, the early res
ident of this region required what is
commonly known as "flint," and which.
as thus used, embraces a whole vide
range of allied rock agate, chalcedony,
brownstone and chalk. The chalce-
dony varies from almost crystal clear
ness to mottled black, through all the
shades of red, blue, green, yellow and
brown.
The primeval man soon learned that
it was difficult to work such flint as
was found on the surface, because
when dry it would shatter into frag-
ments at blow. Hence he quarried
down after it, and the great excava-
tions he left behind him show what n
tremendous amount of stone he used.
The quarrying was accomplished by
the aid of fire, which caused the rock
to shatter, water probably being
thrown on to hasten the work. From
the appearance of the trenches IT is
evident that this work was sometimes
carried along continuously for several
hundred years, and the vast quantities
of chips. broken arrow points, knives,
ETC.. found in the vicinity of the flint
beds indicate that most OF the material
was worked up on the spot.
The amount of labor involved in this
dressing down process is staggering.
Day after day the workman must have
sat chipping off fakes of stone with his
hammer until the implement mp
preached the desired shape. Let one
try to-day, with the best tools at COM
mand. to get off even one flake, and
one will appreciate what n task 1t
was. And yet, thousands and thou
sands of such pieces were made and
scattered carelessly over the country
side!
Indeed, so difficult seems this work
that many persons have fixed beiief
that the finer relics, at least, could have
been made only with metal tools. and
their abundance is held to prove that
primeval man knew of some metal
much harder and of better temper than
anything known to-day. 1t Is argued
that not even file, the hardest OF mod
ern tools, will make any impression on
some of these hints; therefore they
must have been made with something
much harder than the best steel. Some
persons even assert that primetnl man
had discovered way of hardening cop
per to the necessary degree. and say
that they have seen pieces OF copper
SO treated.
AS matter Of fact, as Mr.. Fowke
himself points out, this is in direct op-
position to the evidence. for the great
abundance of stone implements is proof
that the makers of them knew nothing
whatever OF the economic use of met
ais. If they could have made one such
tool, they would have made more. and,
having them. they would not waste
time in making articles much less GER
ylceable than the tools themselves. So
It Is evident that in working stone
prmeval man must have used tools of
the same material.
How did he do 1t? Doubtless his