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or by rubbing it upon sandstone rocks until the peck-marks were 

 either partially or wholly obliterated, and the implement thus finished. 



It is evident that the higher degree of finish exhibited by the 

 polish of some articles, was the result of a higher grade of workman- 

 ship, with materials properly selected, upon principles similar to those 

 employed at the present day. 



The operation of pecldng upon a detached rock confined to a cir- 

 cular space, enabled the patient laborer to work out a cavity capable 

 of receiving a quantity of maize or other grain, and thus a mortar 

 was made ; not invariably, however, upon a detached mass, as they 

 have been observed upon rocks in place. 



This method of working leaves a mark entirely dissimilar to any 

 produced by natural causes. The rolling of floods has a tendency to 

 remove the angles and corners of broken fragments detached from 

 their beds by frost and water or other elemental causes. Changes of 

 temperature are rounding and smoothing or produce entire disinte- 

 gration, but the mark made by the above-described means can never, 

 when once observed, be mistaken for anything else than man's work, 

 and the eye that has once carefully observed it will never fail in its 

 recognition. It is also so with the conchoidal fracture of silicious 

 implements, which unmistakably characterizes them ; but this sub- 

 ject further pursued would anticipate injudiciously the immediate 

 subject of the third division of this communication. 



The second division has been made to embrace the tomahawks, 

 hammers, &c. In this department the simplest and least laborious 

 means have been employed to produce an im.plement for use. A rude 

 fragment of slate or sandstone was prepared by breaking notches on 

 opposite sides, so that a wooden handle could be attached by splitting 

 the end and inserting the stone, securing it with raw hide in strips 

 or with filaments of tendon, or by bending around the notched stone 

 a withe handle of wood, and securing it as above described. These 

 rude implements are the simplest form of the tomahawk ; they are the 

 most abundant of all the relics of the stone period of this country, 

 except arrow and spear heads, and are found in regular gradations, 

 from a simple fragment to chipped forms on a well-established model, 

 and of all sizes from the weight of one half ounce to two or more 

 pounds. 



It may sound to the enlightened ear of modern science, like the 

 employment of figurative language or extravagant phraseology, to 

 use the words '' agricultural implements" in a dissertation on the 

 articles of the stone period; an age or period, it is well under- 

 stood, of savage life ; yet facts are irresistible, and an exact investi- 



