STONE AGE IN NEW JERSEY. 267 



figured by Lubbock.* Although figure 29 is somewhat hirger, and has 

 Dot "one side left unchii)ped,'' the variation in general characteristics is 

 very slight, and an identity of the uses of the two specimens is highly 

 probable. W'e, too, have met with some specimens of this pattern of 

 •• flint hatchet," with such an unchipped surface as is particularly pointed 

 out in the Le Moustier implement by Lubbock. Such identity of Eu- 

 ropean and American specimens of flint-work, oven to the details, i-> 

 certainly remarkable. 



Figures 30, 31, 32, and 33 represent the smaller flint hatchets, which 

 are much more abundant than the larger examples which we have just 

 described. They do not vary very greatly in their general outline, being 

 usually triangular, or nearly so, in shape, and varying but little from 

 three inches in length by two inches in greatest breadth. AVe have 

 gathered several dozens of these small hachets, usually associated witu 

 arrow-points and spear-heads and the other ordinary shapes of surface- 

 relics. 



On the sites of the long-past labors of " Indian arrow-makers," and \^ e 

 have visited several such localities, these small hatchets are found in an 

 unfinished state, mingled with the mass of chippings that accumulated 

 during their manufacture, and that of arrow-points, spear-heads, &c. 

 The unfinished specimens are almost always such as have been discarded, 

 in consequence of some defect in the mineral which was not discovered 

 until the specimen was well toward completion. This fact combats, we 

 think, the assertion, often made, that the Indian arrow-maker was a good 

 practical mineralogist. These specimens were always commenced from 

 masses of the rock not a great deal larger than the intended implement, 

 and small enough to develop to the experienced the weak points of the 

 mineral. 



As already stated, the more usual sizes of hatchets are such as we 

 have figured, (figures 30-33.) Their size should be no objection to the 

 proposition that they were used as cutting-tools. We have already seen 

 that axes are equally small. Sir John Lubbock figures t one from Ire- 

 land, which is as small; and, on page 182, speaking of Swiss axes, says, 

 " "With few exceptions, they were small, especially when compared with 

 the magnificent specimens from Denmark. In length, they varied />o»i 

 six inches to one, while the cutting-edge had generally a width of from 

 fifteen to twenty lines;" and, again, on page 93, speaking of socalle<l 

 "axes," or hatchets of the 7iyo'A7;e/»«dV7(//«rys, says, " They are * * * 

 rudely triangular or quadrangular in shape, with a cutting-edge at the 

 broader end, and two and a half to five and a half inches in length, with 

 a breadth of one and a half to two and a half inches." Now, the New 

 Jersey specimens differ only in this, that both sides are chipped; other- 

 wise they are identical. As we have abundant reasons for knowing that 

 mussels [TJnio and Anodonta) were a favorite food, these little flint 



• Id., p. 3-iO, figs. 182-184. 

 tPrelfi.st.oric Times, fig. 98, 2d ed. 



