STONE AGE IX NEW JERSEY. 325 



The polished point, to which we have alliided, shows that the pur- 

 ]iose of this implement was to drill other stones, and, although the min- 

 eral of which it is made has suftered softening to some extent by long 

 exposure, still with saud and water it will now drill ordinary breast- 

 plates. 



Figure 15S presents another form of chipped slate, bearing some re- 

 semblance to figure 155, which we have classed with the drilling-stones, 

 but whether correctly or not we are by no means certain. They are 

 abundant ; almost always associated with the preceding forms, and al- 

 ways made of slate. ' The one figured is a good example of this class. 

 It is rudely chipped, three inches long, and two wide, at the widest por- 

 tion of the specimen. The point is sufficiently sharp to drill the thinner 

 "breast-plates," one side at a time. 



Mr. Evans has figured* six specimens of fiint implements, which he 

 denominates " borers, awls, or drills." Four of them are very nearly 

 identical with several we have figured in the foregoing pages of this 

 chapter. Probably the most noticeable dilJ'erence is, which in such of 

 Mr. Evans's figures as have broad bases, they are much less elaborately 

 chipped than the New Jersey examples of the same implement. What- 

 ever may be the advantage of true flint, which we do not have, over 

 some veins of jasper, which we do have (not in New Jersey, but near it) 

 in abundance, it is certain that the majority of our specimens, as scrap- 

 ers, dririiug--stones, &c., are manufactured with greater elegance, and 

 evince a more thorough knowledge of the "flint-chipping"' art. The 

 English specimens of " drills" appear to be all " flakes " which have had 

 their edges chipped, that the requisite shape might be given to the 

 specimen. The New Jersey specimens, on the contrary, are, like arrow- 

 heads, chipped entire, from a fraguient of jasper, or, it may be, from a 

 jasper pebble, and no portion of the surface is a part of the natural sur- 

 face of the rock. 



Two of the specimens figured by Mr. Evans are (juite blunt at the 

 ends, but not more so than some of the drilling-stones which we have 

 figured. These blunt forms Mr. Evans thinks may have been arrow- 

 points, and not drills. Prof. Charles Piau, of New York, has given us a 

 most interesting paper on drilling in stone,t in which he claims that a 

 wooden drill, with sand and water, was one method in use during the 

 stone age, for perforating- stone. We do not doubt that he is correct as 

 to the larger holes drilled through polished stone ornaments, banner- 

 stones, and pipes ; but we hold to our opinion as to the use of the speci- 

 mens we have described in this chapter. 



We f<note one paragraph of Prof. Rau's paper, as bearing upon the 

 question of the purpose of the specimens illustrated in this chapter. 

 Prof. Pau writes: " Mr. Desor thinks it probable that the drilling was 

 efiected by means of very thin flakes of flint fixed around a stick, which 



* Auc. Stone Imp. of Great Biit., pp. !2Hd-2'Jl. 

 t Smithsonian Kcpoit for 18G-S-'0a, p. 302. 



