Some of these objects of manufacture have been found uncovered upon the surface of the ground, or partially covered by the soil; others have been dug or ploughed out by the farmer and road-maker in their operations; and other artifacts as well as human skeletons have been taken from pits or excavations six to eight feet in depth. In only a few localities of eastern Canada have mounds been discovered containing specimens of the work of ancient or prehistoric man. There have been found, however, numerous aboriginal village-sites with many bits of pottery, caches of charred corn, and various sorts of kitchen refuse and primitive domestic tools and ornaments.
The following are the principal kinds of ancient artifacts found in this part of the Dominion:—
Bone articles, such as needles, awls, knives, scrapers, and harpoons.
Shell objects, mostly made from marine shells which had been obtained in tropical or sub-tropical seas.
Rude chert, quartzite, and flint objects, some of which are ovate-leaf-shaped, much like the form of certain palæoliths of Dordogne, France.
Drills or borers made of chert and quartzite.
Arrow-heads of chert, quartzite, and flint, barbed and unbarbed, and of various forms.
Spears of slate, often having the tang laterally serrated.
Stone knives and scrapers, rude or well-finished; generally made of limestone or of chert.
The chert used in the manufacture of scrapers, drills, and arrow-heads was doubtless procured from the Devonian rocks in southwestern Ontario, where it occurs in abundance near Lakes Erie and Huron.