STONE AGE IN NEW JERSEY. 361 



Such a pestle as this shown in figure 202, would be well adapted, as a 

 small war-club, either to be retained in the hand, or thrown, as were the 

 smaller axes or tomahawks ; but that it is a pestle seems more probable, 

 inasmuch as the handle is the only portion of the implement showing 

 any indication of polish, which it is not as likely would be the case were 

 the specimen a club. Moreover, the extremity of the globular end is 

 somewhat battered, showing that contact with another stone had been 

 frequent. 



Pestles, as a class, vary much in size. The longest we have met with 

 was twenty-five inches in length. The shortest are those little, slender 

 stones used to reduce red clay to paint-powder, in the stone cups which 

 we have described. We have not seen any with flaring bases, such as 

 those figured by Squier and Davis,* of which the description reads, 

 " occasionally they are elaborately worked, but most are rude." 



Chapter XXIV. 



THE POGGAMOGGON AND NET-SINKERS. 



With the one exception of arrow-heads, no class of relics is so abun- 

 dant as the grooved globular or ovoid pebbles, known by many names, 

 but which we have designated by the term " poggamoggon," as such 

 stone implements are called by the present Shoshone Indians.t 



Figure 203 gives an accurate representation of an average specimen. 

 Some of them are smaller, but none noticeably larger. In finish they 

 vary much, the extremes being a rough pebble with an irregularly 

 "pecked" groove, and a polished pebble with the groove accurately 

 made and smooth. The absence of battered surfaces at the ends seems 

 to indicate that they were never used as hammers ; but, as it has been 

 suggested, they were weights for fishing-lines. 



Professor Xilsson, to whose work we have so often referred, says of 

 specimens of this kind 4 "Those ancient j^^MWwie^s which occur most 

 commonly are * * * oval, or ovally rounded, and with a groove 

 round the middle." He figures such, (pi. xi, fig. 217,) and says of it: 

 It has " undoubtedly been a plummet — it was brought from Pennsyl- 

 vania."§ This specimen is not grooved entirely round it, but, according 

 to the figure, is notched rather than grooved. Such specimens from 

 IS'ew Jersey we will notice presently. They are always ruder than 

 figure 203. There can be no doubt that the grooved stones, similar to 

 figure 203, are used as plummets in Greenland. Professor Nilsson 

 remarks: II "1 was some years ago informed by a person who has long 

 resided in Greenland, how the stones were formed which were used hy 



* Anc. Mon. Miss. Valley ; p. 220, fig. 118. 

 t p]xp. up Missouri, vol. 1, p. 425, by Lowis and Clarko. 

 X Nilssou, Stone Age in Scand., p. 25. 

 $ L. c, p. 25, (foot-note.) 

 . L. c.,p.25. 



