234 The Ottawa Naturalist. * [January 



experience in the study of Indian relics, his own description of the 

 weapon will be far clearer than any that might be substituted by 

 me. He says : — 



" The tomahawks of which you send drawings are un- 

 doubtedly French. We have many bearing- a similar mark. The 

 British ones usually have a round eye and are not nearly so well 

 made as the French tools. They are also smaller and handier, 

 according to Indian notions, for we have several examples of 

 attempts, successful and otherwise, to make the French ones 

 lighter by laboriously sawing off longitudinal sections with flints, 

 just as if the tools had been made of stone." 



"The French stamps vary somewhat, and tools of British 

 make have seldom any stamp at all. There is quite a little field 

 for investigation respecting the makers and the stamps. I fancy 

 that each trading company had its own mark, those from, say 

 Rochelle being distinguishable thus, from those made in or com- 

 ing from Havre or St. Malo. This, however, is only a surmise." 



The iron tomahawk from the Lighthouse Island is made with 

 a slide eye, and is 2 lbs. and i ^ ozs. in weight. 



The three knives are all of the same pattern but of different 

 sizes. As they are so badly rusted, it is impossible to find any 

 marks on them by which they might be identified. One of them 

 has a wooden handle, inlaid with a vine-like design in copper. 

 One ot them is strongly made, with a 6-inch blade, and was doubt- 

 less the one used in removing the emblems of victory from the 

 heads of slain enemies, in other words, the scalping-knife. 



The five gouge-like tools are of iron, and therefore of Euro- 

 pean make. It is difficult to say, however, for what purpose they 

 were used, Mr. Boyle inclines to the belief that from the small 

 bulb or knob, at the end of the handles, they may have been used 

 by means of pushing directly in the hand, perhaps as skin-dressers 

 or flesh-scrapers. The blades are all more or less curved, and 

 vary in width at the ends. A tool somewhat similar to these was 

 received at the Toronto museum, not long since, but it had a 

 straight blade and vi-as minus the knob at the end of the handle. 

 It is just possible they may have been the crooked knives used by 

 wood-workers ; but they are so badly rusted that this must be 

 merely a conjecture. 



