STONE AGE IN NEW JERSEY. 315 



face which has been so produced. It is probably an accidental fracturing 

 of the cobble-stone which furnished the general outline of the specimen 

 as it now exists, and that the uneven surftices were ground down to make 

 the stone available as a hammer. But there is no doubt that the 

 aborigines could fracture stones into pretty much the shape they desired, 

 as "will be seen in the sculptured animals' heads, which were first broken 

 and then smoothed down to correct dimensions. 



The outline drawing given above, of another specimen of " handled" 

 hammer shows a decided variation from this example in that the handle 

 was, and is, cylindrical, whereas in figure 137 the handle is flat, pecked, 

 only at the end, and smoothed down with a polishing-stone. In figure 137, 

 also, there is no trace of an edge ; as in the example above mentioned, 

 there is nothing but blunt hammer-head surfaces throughout. This 

 specimen may have been used as a weapon for close combat ; but if ex- 

 amined in connection with the beautiful specimen of gouge represented, 

 in figure 139, it will be seen that one supplements the other admirably, 

 and that, with the two, charred wood could be easily removed, or a 

 "dug-out" canoe readily made. This specimen of hammer bears some gen- 

 eral resemblance to a not uncommon form of pestle, where a portion of the 

 length has been " split," as it were, giving the specimen a canoe-shaped 

 handle and a nearly circular head. Such a specimen is always rough 

 on the extremity, showing that it was used as a pestle, the blow being 

 struck with the specimen in a vertical position, and not as a hammer. 

 We give a figure of such a pestle in chapter xxiv. 



We have never seen i)erforated hammers of the general shape of 

 figure 133 from New Jersey, except in one instance, where a fragment 

 was found that much resembled such a perforated stone hammer as 

 Nilsson figures,* and of which he remarks, " it is of diorite, and of a 

 very convenient shape. It was found in a bog in Scania, and fell into 

 the hands of a carpenter, who provided it Avith a handle and used it a 

 long time in his workshop as a hammer." The New Jersej' fragment 

 was not as elaborately ridged and fluted, but was far more carefully 

 shaped than any perfect ones we have seen. The specimen, however, 

 was too fragmentary to determine positively whether or not it was a 

 hammer. Inasmuch as we have so manj^ specimens of carefully-drilled 

 " banner-stones," " gorgets," and some stone pipes, it appears strange 

 there should be such an absence of tools that have been drilled for 

 handles. We have never yet seen a perfect or even recognizable frag- 

 ment of an ax or hammer sufficiently large to be useful as a tool, that 

 was drilled for a handle instead of having the ordinary groove. 



Stevenst figures a stone hammer found in Ireland, not materially differ- 

 ing from figure 135, to which we refer as another example of the curious 

 identity of the specimens of stone-work found in distant quarters of the 

 globe. We have not collected any specimens of very largo stone mauls, 



* Stouc Ago, pi. viii, fig. 172, p. G9. t Flint Chips, p. 557, fig. 121. 



