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 OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 51

being evidently such as were deemed ornamental, or re- cognised as badges of distinction. Some of the altar or sacrificial mounds, on the other hand, have the deposits within them almost entirely made up of finished arrow and spear points, intermixed with masses of the unmanufactured material. From one altar were taken several bushels of finely worked lance heads of milky quartz, nearly all of which had been broken up by the action of fire. In an- other mound, an excavation six feet long and four broad disclosed upwards of six hundred spear heads or discs of hornstone, rudely blocked out, and the deposit extended indefinitely on every side. Some of these are represented in the accompanying engraving. They are necessarily

greatly reduced. The originals are about six inches long and four broad, and weigh not far from two pounds each. Some specimens from this deposit are nearly round, but most are of the shape of those here figured. We are wholly at a loss respecting their purposes, unless they were designed to be worked into the more elaborate instruments to which allusion has been made, and were thus roughly blocked out for greater ease of transportation from the quarries. Several localities are known from which the material may have been obtained. One of these, distinguished as “Flint Ridge,” extends through the counties of Muskingum and Licking, in Ohio. It is many miles in extent, and countless pits are to be observed throughout its entire length, from which the stone