Gushing.] '^^^ [Nov. 6, 



Of course scrapers and shavers of various kinds abounded. Some, of 

 larsje, finely-ribbed, serrated bivalves — varieties of pectunculus — were 

 perforated at the apices, in order that a loop might be attached to them 

 to facilitate handling. Others were made from the valves of tide-water 

 unios, or sun-clams, so called, and showed no other art than that of hav- 

 ing been keenly sharpened at the edges, and of the wear which had re- 

 sulted from use. The most elaborate objects of this kind were, however, 

 certain tlat-hinged bivalves or area shells, about three and a half or four 

 inches long. The umboidal apices of these had been broken away and 

 strips of bark, and in at least one case, broad straps of a kind of 

 leather, had been so passed back and forth through the apertures, 

 and platted along the hinges or straight backs, as to afford excel- 

 lent grasp. All of them were cienulate at the edges and some of them 

 were double, that is, made of two shells tightly tied together, one inside 

 of the other, in such manner that a double edge was thereby secured. 

 Several draw-knives made from split leg-bones of the deer sharpened to 

 beveled edges from the inside; some ingenious shaving-knives, made 

 from the outer marginal whorls of the true conchs — the thick indented 

 or toothed lips of which formed their backs or handles, the thin but 

 strong whorl-walls being sharpened to keen straight edges — completed 

 the list of scraping and planing tools. 



Cutting and carving knives of shark's teeth, varying in size from tiny 

 straight points to curved blades nearly an inch in length and in width 

 of base, were found by hundreds. Some were associated with their 

 handles. These were of two classes. The greater number of th.em 

 consisted of shafts from five to seven inches in length b}' not more than 

 half or three-quarters of an inch in diameter at their thickest portions. 

 Some were slightly curved, others straight, some pointed, others squared 

 at the smaller ends. All were furnished with nocks at the lower ends— 

 which were also a little tapered — for the reception of the hollow bases 

 of the tooth-blades that had been lashed to them and cemented with 

 black gum. Not a few of these doubly-tapered little handles were mar- 

 vels of finish, highly polished, and some of them were carved or incised 

 with involuted circlets or kwa-like decorations, or else with straight or 

 spiral-rayed rosettes and concentric circles, at the upper ends, as though 

 these had been used as stamps in the finishing of certain kinds of work. 

 The other class of handles was much more various, and was designed for 

 receiving one or more of the shark-tooth blades, not at the extremities, 

 but at the sides of the ends, some transversely, others laterally. They 

 were nearly all carved ; a few of them most elaborately ; and they 

 ranged in length from the width of the palm of the hand to five or six 

 inches, being adapted for use not only as carvers, but also, probably — 

 such as had single crossblades — as finishing adzes. 



Everywhere on the least finished surfaces of completed carvings, and 

 on incipient works, not only in wood, but also in bonC and horn, could 

 be seen distinctive marks left bv the finelv serrated edges of these more 



