ETHNOLOGY. 445 



OX AX ANCIENT IMPLEMENT OF WOOD. 



By E. W. ELLSWOiiTir, of East Windsor Hill, Connecticut. 



Ou a mild day, early in December, 1S7G, I was walking along tbe east 

 shore of Connecticut Eiver, at a place about six mi'es above Hartford, 

 where for several years the river has been cutting the bank during 

 seasons of freshet. This eroded bank is from 12 to 15 feet high, meas- 

 uring perpendicularly upward from the ordinary low-water level of the 

 river. This bank, for about two-thirds its height, measuring downward, 

 is composed of the soft, sandy loam which is the prevailing soil in all 

 our low-lands contiguous to the river. Below this loam, at this particu- 

 lar point, and estendiug in depth below low-water mark, is a hard bed 

 of blue clay. This clay-bed extends along the shore only a few rods.* 

 I have nev^er seen similar clay elsewhere, near the river. Its most 

 noticeable peculiarity is that it is permeated with vegetable material, 

 which is entirely absent from the loam above it. Stones are very scarce 

 both in the loam and subjacent clay ; but the clay is full of leaves, twigs, 

 sticks, roots, stumps, trunks and branches of trees, acorns, and frag- 

 ments of bark. The larger specimens of wood, which happen to be 

 exposed near low-water line, are sound, smooth, and hard. Some of 

 them, on being cut into, show a grain like pine, although no resin is 

 perceptible in the knots j others are apparently oak. The acorns are 

 very fragile and crumble at a touch. Some fragments of bark are unmis- 

 takably from yellow pine. One trunk of a tree shows charring. The 

 larger wood, wherever it has been exposed to sun and air long enough 

 to become partially dried, is scored, cracked, and checked by shrinkage- 

 fissures. I noticed the top of one stump almost as cellular as a honey- 

 comb. Among the smaller material I found slender roots with bud-like 

 projections at long intervals. They were well preserved, but I did not 

 identify them. About two feet above the level of the water, and about 

 one-third imbedded in the clay, the implement of wood which is the sub- 

 ject of this paper attracted my attention. It was evident at a glance 

 that its figure was not one of natural growth,, but as a sample of wood 

 its characteristic marks were identical with those of other wood simi- 

 larly fixed in and projecting from the clay. The ground being frozen, I 

 could not immediately obtain it, but the next day I returned with a 

 hatchet and dug it out. Now that it is thoroughly dried, its weight is 

 four pounds and ten ounces. The shrinkage-fissures have become con- 

 siderably deeper and more dehiscent since the drying. The handle and 

 head of the mallet are of one piece. The form of the head is approxi- 

 mately a straight cylinder, from the center of one end of which projects 

 the handle, somewhat curv^ed. 



•Perhaps the clay-bed extends aloug the shore below the water-liue, aud also out into 

 the river. This is the remark of Professor Ran, aud is very likely a correct supposi- 

 tion. It has not yet been confirmed uor disproved by exploration. 



