258 ETHNOLOGY. 



Figure 19 reprcseuts a specimen of ax of soraewliat similar outline to 

 the preceding, liaving the ridges tliat are on the margin of the groove 

 very well defined, but the tapering, conical head is by no means as 

 artistically finished as in the other instance, (figure 18.) As the illus- 

 tration shows, this specimen has been chii^ped, or, more properly, pecked, 

 over its whole surface, and is a good instance of the perseverance and 

 patience of the primitive fol(|c who accounted such weapons among the 

 chiefest of their worldly goods. Axes of this shape and pattern occur 

 in every part of the State, associated with the pattern described in 

 figures 11-15. So different are they in the one matter of the groove and 

 its position, that it seems exceedingly probable that the two patterns 

 had different uses, and yet we cannot see in what the one shape is 

 superior to the others. On examining the hammer-heads, or " backs," 

 of a large number of the pattern of figures 11-15, we find there indi-» 

 cations of the hammer-head portions having been struck frequent and 

 hard blows with another stone, as though this style of ax was largely 

 used in splitting wood ; while, in the present type (figures lG-19) there is 

 much less indication of such battering of the head. But we have not 

 sufiicient evidence as yet to make any separation of these styles into 

 " war" and "domestic" axes, or some such distinctive designations. 



Figure 20 represents an exceedingly crude ax, that, when figured, 

 was the very " plainest" specimen we had ever met with. Since then, 

 however, we have had one other that is even more primitive, and yet 

 unquestionably a " grooved stone ax." The specimen here figured 

 (figure 20) has the groove on each side and above and below of a uniform 

 depth, and is well defined throughout, as the illustration indicates; but, 

 in the still pMuer specimen, the groove consists of a faint roughening, 

 that seems of little use, being scarcely uneven enough to prevent the 

 fastening from slipping ; but, like figure 20, the groove at the top and 

 bottom is practically deepened by a projecting knob of the stone, at which 

 points all the strain of the fastening of the handle must have come. In 

 the specimen figured, (figure 20,) the sides of the blade of the ax have 

 been dressed down with a hammer- stone to a pretty well defined edge ; 

 but in the still plainer ax before us we find that upon one side a few 

 chii)s only have been struck off, and on the other two great portions 

 have been artistically knocked away, and the then roughly-prepared 

 blade has been rubbed with a polishing-stone until a small but highly- 

 polished edge has been produced. We cannot imagine any more diffi- 

 cult task than really cutting wood or splitting bone with such a weapon 

 as this, and would restrict its use to bruising the bark of trees ; but the 

 trees once dead, they would require something better than these rude 

 axes to fell them. Judging from their present appearances, the edges 

 only of these axes have been used ; the back, which is very uneven in 

 each case, does not show any trace of having ever been struck with a 

 hammer ; and we find in many of the axes, especially in the pattern of 

 figure 11, that they were so struck, thus converting the ax for a time 



