(See Bibliography for others.)
Fig. 29. Indirect percussion. Two persons being concerned. Practiced by the Apaches, according to George Catlin.
Flint, chert, chalcedony, jasper, quartz, argillite, and other materials of flint-like character occurred in regular veins, or in nodules or in ordinary boulders or pebbles in the drift. Aboriginal man, therefore, mined in a quarry or he dug in the drift, or he picked up from the surface, or he worked in a limestone stratum to extract the nodular flint. He sought in any one of these places according to his locality and character of the material and its position. At Flint Ridge, the largest flint quarries in the United States, there is a hill or ridge, nearly eight miles in length and varying from a few hundred yards to as much as three miles in width, which is literally filled with depressions varying from small pits to one nearly a hundred feet in diameter and twenty or more feet in depth at the present time. The flint from this quarry is distributed throughout Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, portions of Pennsylvania, and even west of the Mississippi. The amount of work done at Flint Ridge by the aborigines passes comprehension. When one considers their primitive methods of quarrying, it is surprising that they were able to quarry such hard material as flint. Without the use of fire, which they had to apply very carefully, first placing a coating of clay over the flint, they would have been unable to remove any considerable portion of the material.
The Flint Ridge chalcedony is beautifully colored, red, blue, cream color, pink, and pure white. It is easily chipped, and was highly prized by the natives.
I have not space for a long narrative of how the flint was quarried. It is of more importance to tell readers how the implements were manufactured. Mr. Gerard Fowke has made a study of Flint Ridge and published an able paper in the National Museum Reports, 1884–5. He also wrote a chapter for “Primitive Man in Ohio.” His paper was reprinted in Bulletin no. III, Department of Archæology, Phillips Academy, 1906. I quote, as to how the flint was quarried, from his paper:—
Fig. 30. Flaking by pressure, a bone implement being used; (a) the bone tool, (b) the stone, (c) the flake.
Fig. 31. Flaking by pressure, a bone point being used, the implement to be shaped resting on a support.