Gushing.] ^^O [Xov. 6, 



of handicraft that we found were not of stone, but almost exclusively 

 of hard organic substances — shell, bone, horn, and teeth — principally 

 those of sharks — with their various kinds of wooden appurtenances or 

 haftings, sometimes intact, sometimes merely indicated by the presence 

 of fragments or traces — distinct enough, but too often wholly un- 

 recoverable. In most cases these diverse parts were still in their origi- 

 nal relation to one another, although, as a rule, the lashings by which 

 they had been bound together — having consisted, as could plainly be 

 seen by impressions left even in the surrounding mud, of rawhide 

 thongs^ or of twisted sinew or fishgut — had wholly dissolved, or else re- 

 mained merely as a dubious sort of gelatinous mass or slime. Such bind- 

 ings had, however, in many instances been reinforced with cements of 

 one kind or another — a sticky red substance, the stain only of which 

 remained — or else rubber-gum, asphaltum, or a combination of rosin and 

 beeswax and rubber, which still endured and retained perfect impres- 

 sions of the fastening cords, whether coarse thongs or finely twisted 

 threads. 



We exercised great caution in keeping related parts together, and 

 succeeded thus in recovering quite a number of examples of eacli of the 

 many types most characteristic of the technical arts of the keys. 



Large clam shells, deeplj' worn at the backs, as well as sho^^ing 

 much use at the edges, seemed to have served both as scrapers and as 

 digging implements or hoes ; for some of them had been hafted by 

 clamping curved sticks over the hinge and over the point at the apex or 

 umbo — where it showed wear— precisely in such manner as LeMoine 

 seems to have attempted to show in his representation — published in 

 De Bry and other early works — of Indians planting corn. 



Picks, hammers, adzes and gouges made from almost entire conch 

 shells were found, handles and all, in relatively perfect condition and 

 in considerable numbers. As may be seen by reference to the accom- 

 panying illustration, Fig. 1, PI. XXXII, the conch-shell heads of these 

 tools were most ingeniously hafted. The wlioii was usually battered 

 away on the side toward the mouth, so as to expose the columella. The 

 lip was roundly notched or pierced, and the back whorl also perforated 

 oppositely. Thus the stick or handle could be driven into these perfora- 

 tions, past the columella in such manner that it was sprung or clamped 

 firmly into place. Nevertheless it was usually further secured with raw- 

 hide thongs — now mere jelly — passed through one or two additional per- 

 forations in the head, and around both the stick and the columella. The 

 spike-like ends of the columelhe were so shai>ed as to form eitlier long, 

 sharp-pointed picks, fiat, small-faced hammers or battering tools, adzes 

 with very narrow bits, or gouges. The edges of tlie gouges were wider 

 than those of the other tools, more of the wings of the shells having 

 been left on the ends of the columelhe and these half-hollow points hav- 

 ing been simply ground oft' obliquely. I made a tool of this description, 

 which worked admirablv on the hardest wood I could get ; and retained 



