70 BULLETIN 14 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



No. 341063, U.S.N.M.) The pestle resembles one recovered by De 

 Booy from a shell heap on the Cristobal Colon estate on the Higuamo 

 River 3 miles above San Pedro de Macoris. Here also were located a 

 cache of seven pestle stones, square in section, like those recovered by 

 the Museum expedition from the San Juan site. 



Another stone illustrated as 8 in Plate 5, had been used as a 

 grinding and hammerstone. It is rounded at the base, oval at the 

 top, and having rectangular section with rounded edges. This imple- 

 ment, like 6 and 7, had been smoothly shaped by pecking, but is 

 unpolished. No. 8 is 5 centimeters (2 inches) long. (Cat. No, 

 341068, U.S.N.M.) Both this implement and the conical or pear- 

 shaped pestle or grinding stone (7 of pi. 5) are not Arawak types. 

 Characteristic Tainoan stone pestles have decorative zoomorphic 

 figurine heads. It is therefore probable that the conical pestle forms 

 without decorative heads represent or typify a more primitive culture 

 than that of the Taino of Haiti and belong to the characteristically 

 cruder Ciguayan culture complex as frequently manifested in Sa- 

 manan finds. 



Uses of coral. — The deposits of finer sediments are mostly in the 

 western end of Samana Bay near the distributaries of the Rio Yuna. 

 Except for such deposits, the water of Samana Bay is mostly clean 

 and affords suitable conditions for the growth of corals. Off the 

 mouth of the harbor at Samana colonies of the staghorn coral 

 {Acropo7'a mwricata) and of palmate coral (Acropora palnmfa) are 

 growing. There are several other coral reefs in different parts of 

 Samana Bay similar to coral formations elsewhere in the Antilles. 



A piece of worked coral 7.3 centimeters (2.8 inches) long, and 3.3 

 centimeters (1.3 inches) in diameter at the base, but tapered to a 

 blunt point, is figured as 1 in Plate 9. This implement of coral has 

 been shaped into the form of a pick with a pointed end and a hole 

 for hafting excavated nearly through the coral block near the larger 

 or basal end. The perforation is 1.5 centimeters (0.6 inch) in diame- 

 ter and is of equal depth. Whether this implement is a drill handle 

 or a pickax is problematical. If a pick, as intimated, the object is 

 a rare one, as similar hafting perforations have never before been 

 reported from the Antilles. The grooved ax is the typical New 

 World cutting implement, but even grooved implements are rare 

 from Taino and Ciguayan territory. In Europe several forms of 

 axes and gouges or celts have hafting holes excavated from basal or 

 midsections. The implement just described, if a pickax, introduces 

 a new form of haft into the Antilles which is similar to that of the 

 Old World. (Cat. No. 341013, U.S.N.M.) 



Coral perforators symmetrically shaped by crumbling into trun- 

 cated cylindrical forms 2 to 3 inches in length were recovered from 



