STONE AGE IN NEW JERSEY. 253 



then the pnri)ose is well carried out ; but why so carefully rounded a 

 blade ? jS^o detailed description other than some of the principal meas- 

 urements are necessary. The illustration gives an accurate idea of the 

 weapon itself. The handle aud " back" straight portion of the blade 

 measure together exactly five and one-half inches. The diameter of 

 the circular blade is about four and one-half inches. The straight back 

 of the implement is the only portion of the natural surface of the stone 

 from which it was made. An examination shows that some large bowl- 

 der has been broken into lamina?, and one of these, originally about one 

 inch in thickness, has been afterward chipped until the handled disk 

 has been produced as we now find it. The edge apparently has never 

 been sharper, about one-fourth of an inch in width, and the whole gen- 

 eral appearance tends to show that it is an agricultural implement. 

 While this impression militates against the idea of a great antiquity 

 for these rude specimens, an antiquity that antedates agriculture eveu 

 in its most primitive condition, yet there seems no other me«*:hod of 

 utilizing this unique specimen. 



Chapter III. 



GROOVED STONE AXES. 



These, although having a general similarity, are not exactly alike, 

 and we have had in oar possession at various times several hundred. 

 The universal exception that coexists with ever}" rule here obtains in the 

 pattern of ax that is grooved upon each side, near the head and across 

 one margin, but whether the top or bottom is uncertain. Such speci- 

 mens are alike sometimes, even with regard to size. So far as the con- 

 tinuation of the groove across one margin is concerned, we find that a 

 forked sapling can be best attached to such axes by placing the flat 

 margin in the fork of the handle and drawing the ends together over the 

 groove, thus making it the top or upper margin of the implement. Wo 

 shall, therefore, in describing this pattern of ax, which is the most nearly 

 uniform of all the styles, consider the groove as being across the upper 

 margin. Careful examination also of the edges of such specimens as we 

 have had seems to us to show also that this manner of securing the 

 handle was that i^ursued by the people who made and used these axes. 



Figure 11 is a very good example of the most common type of grooved 

 stone axes; that is, such as we have described in the preceding para- 

 graph. This ax measures elev(in and one-half inches in total length, 

 and is but four inches wide at the broadest portion, the ridge imme- 

 diately in front of the groove. The groove itself is but seven-eighths 

 of an inch in width, and the head, or that portion posterior to the groove, 

 varies from one and one-half inches to one inch in length. The cuttiug-edgo 

 is but two and one-fourth inches in extent, and is still moderately sharp 

 and well preserved. Although the specimen still shows the marks of the 

 hammer, yet it might almost be placed under the head of polished axes, as 



