DRILLING IN STONE WITHOUT METAL. 



393 



li^.l 



sliaft-liolcs are likewise more or loss smooth, but destitute of the annular stria?, 

 and sometimes narrower in the middle, in wliich cases, of course, a circular })ro- 



tuberauce of coiTespondint^size is formed. (Fig. 1.) 

 These holes evidently were drilled I'roni two sides, 

 and the drilling" implement was not a hollow cylin- 

 der, but a solid body, prt)bably a wooden stick. 

 ]\Iost of the axes and hammers provided with shaft- 

 holes of this character are perhaps relics of the age 

 of stone. It is hardly necessary to state that with- 

 out the application of water and hard sand, drilling 

 with either implement, hollow or solid, would have 

 been impossible, and that the sand is to be considered as the chief agent in the 

 process. 



I had occasion to examine a number of European stone hatchets and hammers, 

 which were in an unfinished state, the shaft-holes being only commenced or 

 drilled half through, and the appearance of the latter perfectly corroborated my 

 view concerning the different shapes of the drills used in making them ; for some 

 of these unfinished holes, and just such as belong to the striated class, have at 

 the bottom a conical projection or a core, (Fig. 2,) which obviously resulted from 



the application of a hollow 

 drilliuii" implement ; while 



lH(i. 2. 



v^/mm 



others (Fig. 3) terminate 

 in a rounded concave bot- 

 tom, resembling exactly the 

 cavity made by a wooden 

 stick used as a drill.* I 

 , . , . ,/. ; ,, , .... ^^ ./. would not express this lat- 



ter opinion so positively, if I could not rely on the results of experiments, having, 

 in fact, succeeded in perforating a hard stone without any use of metal by means 

 of a stick, in connection w^ith sand and water. An account of the method 

 employed by me, and of the results, I hope will be of interest to those archfe- 

 ologists who pay some attention to the minor details of their study. 



In the first place, I will give a description of my drilling imjjlement, (Fig. 4,) 

 which is, in fact, a pump-drill, the same apparatus that was used in former times by 

 the Iroquois for the purpose of ])roducing lire by friction. t It consists of a round 

 wooden shaft, al)0ut four feet long and an inch in diameter at the upper end, 

 but tapering a little towards the lower extremity, where it is provided with a 

 heavy wooden disk, which acts as a fly-wheel. A bow or bent stick, three feet 

 in length, with a long string attached to it, forms the second part of the a])paratus. 

 When used the string of the bow is passed through a notch cut in the top end of 



* It afforded me some satisfaction to find my views confirmed, to a certain extent, in a 

 work of Dr. Gustav Kleiiim. This autlior first alludes toGutsniuUis, vvlio published an article 

 in the " Morgeiiblatt," (18^'J, No. y.jii, ) in which he tried to prove tliat a liolluw cylinder of 

 metal, used with emery iu the manner of tootiiless stone saws, was tij(! drillinn;' iinpleuient of 

 the ancients, basino; liis opinion upon the same facts which 1 already fiave stated, namely, 

 the regularity ot tii(; holes, the core at their bottom, and ilie circular furrows. Klcnun him- 

 self possessed in his collection a hollow bronze tube, five incljes lonp, three-quarters iif an incli 

 in diameter, and covered all over with preen rust, \.\\icivrugo nulnlis of antiquaries. Willi 

 such implements, hetlmught, the shatt-holes iuid (generally been drilled, " but continued ob.-er- 

 vation," he says, "convinced me that other methods also must have been employed. A 

 stone axe of niy collection, bored from two sides, exljibits conical cavities, tiie shajn' of whicli 

 'at once excludes the idea that a iiollow cylinder was used in drilling them ; the implement 

 with which they weie made, probably iu a slow and painful way, evitlently w^as a solid 

 body." (Klcinin, AUgmicincCullmicisscnsc.luiJt, ll'crlizcugc ittitl Wujj'in, Lripzif^, l>i')4, p. 71).) 



tMoifjun, League of tiie Iro(pu)is, Kochester, lc5], description and figiue on pafjfe 381. 

 Mr. Tylor pivcs likewise, on pa^e 2iC> of his valuablt; " Kescarches into the Early History 

 of Mankind," (Lundon, IHf!.'). ) adrawin;^ ol the ajjparatus, but reiJrescnls it us b(ring moved 

 with one liand oidy. In order to maintain the equilibrium of tiie shaft, it is necessary to 

 aj)ply both hands to the bow. 



