PIERCED HATCHETS. 99 



which was perfectly round and highly polished, and the head 

 of an arrow, also flint, but not a particle of any metallic 

 substance."* 



We know also the North American stone axe or tomahawk 

 served not merely as an implement, but also as a weapon, 

 being used both in the hand and also as a missile.^ 



Another class of stone hatchets are those which are pierced 

 for the handle, as in pi. 1, fig. 2. From the nature of flint 

 these were scarcely ever made of that material. There are, 

 however, in Copenhagen, two such hatchets, in which advan- 

 tage has been ingeniously taken of a natural hole in the flint. 

 In many kinds of hard stone, however, it is quite possible to 

 drill a hole by means of a cylinder of bone or horn, with a 

 little sand and water ; yet it is very doubtful whether this 

 class of implements truly belong to the Stone Age. The 

 pierced axes are generally found in graves of the Bronze 

 period, and it is most probable that this mode of attaching 

 the handle was used very rarely, if at all, until the discovery 

 of metal had rendered the process far more easy than could 

 have been the case previously. 



The so-called "scrapers" (figs. 103, 104), are oblong stones 

 rounded at one end, which is brought to a bevelled edge by 

 a series of small blows. One side is flat, the other, or outer, 

 one is more or less convex ; sometimes they have a short 

 handle, which gives them very much the appearance of a 

 spoon. They have been found in England, France, Den- 

 mark, Ireland, Switzerland, and other countries. They vary 

 from one to four inches in length, and from half an inch to 

 two inches in breadth. An Esquimaux scraper used in pre- 

 paring skins is represented in figs. 105 107. These modern 

 specimens are of exactly the same form as the old ones. 



* New Statist. Ace. Kircudbrightshire, vol. iv. p. 332. Quoted by 

 Wilson, Pre-his. Ann. of Scotland, 2nd edit. vol. i. p. 187. 

 f Colden's History of the Five Nations, vol. i. p. 10. 



H 2 



