340 ETHNOLOGY. 



Mr. Squier* al^io, in bis memoir on the aboriginal monuments of Nevr 

 York, figures a terra-cotta head of a fox and two other specimens of an 

 indefinite character, which are also more elaborate in the details, but 

 not more accurate in outline, than is figure 176 compared with the 

 fox-head figured by Mr. Squier, or the two figures 177 and 178 as com- 

 pared with the two ruder figures given in the above-mentioned mono- 

 graph. We conclude, therefore, that our New Jersey specimens bear to 

 those of the West the same relation that the old-time silhouettes bear 

 to the modern photograph. 



Considering that the difficulty of shaping hard stone is much greater 

 than molding terra-cotta, surely the Xew Jersey outline carvings exhibit 

 an equal amount of skill to those described from other States and re- 

 quired a greater amount of patience ; but there was little diflerence in 

 the capabilities of the aborigines of New York and New Jersey, the ad- 

 vantage in most respects being, probably, with the more northern tribes. 



On page 140 we briefly referred to a " slab of hard sandstone," 

 ■which, it is thought, may properly be called an " animal carving," 

 although, on our first examination of the specimen, its outline did 

 not impress us as being very animal like. Our impression then was 

 that the ground, or semi-polished surfaces upon the edges of the 

 specimen, were produced in polishing weapons and repointing them ; 

 and, therefore, that the outline of the whole stone was accidentally 

 formed. A subsequent examination, however, and a comparison of the 

 specimens with the ones already described, added to a better knowledge 

 "of true" j)olishing tools, led us to a different conclusion. The stone 

 has been split to render it thin enough for ready working, while its 

 original (if such there was) resemblance to a small mammal was in- 

 creased and rendered somewhat perfect by subsequent grinding and 

 polishing. The faint, eye-like depressions make the resemblance to an 

 animal more striking and unmistakable. 



In a subsequent chapter, we shall call attention to " pestles," some of 

 which have carved heads. They are referred to here, merely to show that 

 the disposition to imitate animals by figures in stone is evinced in ways 

 other than by " outlines" such as we have figured, and that while these 

 outline works are much ruder than the carved head of a wolf upon a 

 pestle found in Vermont, they are not probably older, but show that at 

 about the same period in the average progress or degree of culture of 

 the red man there was the beginning of that art which was but little 

 advanced at the period of the later pictorial writings of these same 

 people, when a warrior would publish his autobiography by means of a 

 long series of grotesque sketches upon his blanket.t 



* Abor. Mou. of New York. Smithson. Contrib., vol. ii, p. 76. 

 t Catliu's N. A, Indians, vol. i, p. 148, fig. 65. 



