STONE AGE IN NEW JERSEY. 351 



and Monmouth Counties, known as Cream Ridge, was a favorito 

 spot with the Indians, as shown by the abundance of reHcs found 

 throughout this section, and especially by the occurrence of certain 

 implements wholly used in the cultivation of their corn. These im- 

 plements, of which there are two varieties, we have designated " hoes 

 and shovels," the latter being used by the women in preparing the soil, 

 the former to keep down the weeds after the corn had sprouted. 



Implements known as "hoes," both of stone and elk-horn, have been 

 figured and described by Prof. Nilsson,* which differ, however, from 

 the Kew Jersey specimens in being perforated for the insertion of a 

 handle, a feature wholly unknown in Indian antiquities, other than 

 as regards thoso used for mere ornamental purposes. The Scandina- 

 vian hoes differ principally in being perforated instead of grooved for 

 the secure attachment of a handle. Of the use of such " hoes," Prof. 

 !N^ilsson says, "It must be acknowledged that if agriculture, as seems 

 most probable, consisted originally in burning tracts of forest, and then 

 sowing among the ashes, these rude hoes must have been very suitable 

 for such operations." 



Figure 191 represents a very beautiful specimen of a New Jersey 

 stone hoe. It is admirably ground into proper shape from a light-gray 

 sandstone pebble, mineralogically not similar to any other relic in our 

 possession, except a corn-mill, to be figured and described in the next 

 chapter. This relic is now five and a quarter inches long by a little over 

 two and a half inches wide. It was originally much longer, and, by the 

 wear it shows, was much used. The under surface was almost perfectly 

 flat. The upper or outer surface is ridged, the height decreasing as it 

 approaches the front edge of the implement, thus making the greatest 

 thickness, one inch and a half at the head, which is separated from the 

 body of the implement by two deep grooves, or notches, which do not 

 meet on the under or the upper surface; but the ridge that extends the 

 whole length of the hoe has a shallow depression where it passes between 

 the two side notches. 



This hoe, therefore, has been attached to a handle at right angles to 

 the blade, the handle being placed in contact with the hoe at the under 

 surface and well lashed by raw-hide strips passing around it and over 

 the side notches; or the handle has been split, or a forked stick, the 

 ends being drawn about the hoe at the notches, and firmly bound by 

 raw-hide strips at the central notch, after the manner of securing han- 

 dles to the ordinary grooved cobble-stone ax. The shape of the speci- 

 men at once indicates its use as an agricultural implement. We do not 

 see the advantage of a modern hoe over this one, except in being lighter 

 and less liable to be broken on coming violently in contact with large 

 stones. We have seen no other specimen from New Jerse}^ as well 

 shaped as that sketched in figure 194, but the few specimens coming 

 under our notice were all similarly shaped in the essential parts. 



"On the Stnno Age iu Scandinavia. London, ldG8. P. 74, and pi. viii, ligs. 180, 121, 



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