Archæological history of Ohio : the mound builders and later Indians / by Gerard Fowke.
- Gerard Fowke
- Date:
- 1902
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Archæological history of Ohio : the mound builders and later Indians / by Gerard Fowke. Source: Wellcome Collection.
49/788 page 25
![made their way into the earth, why do we not find more of them ; and why do we not find finished articles as well? There are continual reports in newspapers and other pub- lications regarding the occurrence of some object or other at a very great depth or under circumstances which, if true, would set it back to a very remote date. Many of them are as well authenticated as stories of finding aboriginal relics in the drift. As examples, a few quotations follow, whose authors were toler- ably accurate observers and who would indorse no statement of , whose tfuth there seemed, to them, to be any reasonable doubt. It is safe to assert that in every case such as these some signifi- cant fact has been overlooked, which would explain in a rational manner the seemingly marvelous discovery. If, however, the reports be correct, some of them are far more remarkable than the discovery of paleoliths or any other implements under any depth of gravel. Schoolcraft refers to “the discovery [before 1818] of a small antique- shaped iron horse-shoe, found twenty-five feet below the surface in grad- ing one of the streets [presumably at Marietta], and the blunt end, or stump of a tree, at another locality, at the depth of ninety-four feet, together with marks of the cut of an axe, and an iron wedge.” — School- craft, 17. “At Portsmouth, Ohio, six or seven [large sea-shells] were found buried in the soil, beneath the parallels of the great work. They were at a depth of twenty-five feet in river alluvium.” — Whittlesey, Works, 19. Schoolcraft reports that at Shawneetown salt-works a pot of 8 or lo gallons capacity was found at a depth of 8o feet.— Drake: Ab. Races, 62. Short quotes a statement of Dr. Furness : — “ Near Waynesville, Ohio about the year 1824, on top of the hill on the east side of the Little Miami River forty or fifty feet above the level of the stream,” a well-digger “at the depth of thirteen or fourteen feet came to a dark mould about two feet deep, on the top of which was a thimble and a piece of coarse cloth/' “The removal above after passing through the soil consisted of solid clay of a yellowish-brown color.” — Short, 126. It is stated that Dr. Edward Orton believed the find au- thentic ; though no explanation is forthcoming as to the manner in which these articles may have reached the place where found. “ Dr. McMurtrie relates in his ‘Sketches of Louisville’ that an iron hatchet was found beneath the roots of a tree at Shippingport, upwards](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24849959_0049.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
