STONE AGE IN NEW JERSEY. 375 



curiously enough, a small, smooth spot also is retained on the margin of 

 the specimen. If we take up this, as Ave would those having " finger- 

 pits," and place the end of the forefinger on the smooth surface upon 

 the margin, we find that the point directly opimsite the forefinger's end 

 is that which has been worn off' and battered by contact with other and 

 harder minerals. The margin itself has been puri)osely chipped to bring 

 the pebble into proper shape, and the point above mentioned is the only 

 one that shows the specimen to have been used, and that it was de- 

 signed solely as a stone-hammer. As in figure 217, the battered surface 

 at that one point opposite the nahiral resting-point for the forefinger 

 makes it a matter of certainty how this implement was utilized. 



Figure 220 represents a pretty little stone-hammer, made from a small 

 cylindrical pebble. The sides still retain their natural surface, but the 

 ends are well battered, showing that the implement has done good serv. 

 ice. Such a specin)en is the most simple form of tool that we have in 

 our collection. It is merely a pebble from the bed of a brook, and per. 

 haps the battering it has received was caused by repairing a weapon 

 of jasper which had become dulled on its edges or had lost the point. 

 We think it i)robable that every aborigine was more or less competent 

 to work in tlint; otherwise, on extended journeys or during a day's 

 hunting, many implements would be useless from some slight accident 

 which would liave to be repaired by the professional tool or arrow maker. 

 We have often visited localities where jasper was extensivelj' worked, 

 and have seldom met with any but the more finished stone or fiakiug 

 hammers. 



Professor Xilsson* has described a series of stone-hammers from 

 Scandinavia, icWi one from the Delaware Biver, which are in most re- 

 spects similar to our New Jersey specimens. He says of them, "there 

 are antiiiuaries who would deny that the stone implements here repre- 

 sented and described (as hammer-stones) were used in the manner just 

 mentioned, but I have never heard any one able even to guess for vrhat 

 other puri)osc they were used. As grindstones for iron they do not 

 answer; and the marks of blows found on them were, as must be evi- 

 dent to every one not totally ignorant of the subject, occasioned by 

 blows on some hard brittle stone; not against any kind of metal 

 whatsoever. Similar chipping-stones are, besides, found from the pole 

 to the equator, among all nations who use stone implements. The only 

 objection to my view is, that similar stones have been found among 

 iron articles. I have hinted that possibly these were amulets. That 

 they were grindstones for iron arms is, as above stated, utterly impos- 

 sible. It rests with the doubter, therefore, to specify for what purpose 

 they were used, according to his opinion. On all these stones * * * 

 we find at the edges marks of the purpose to which they were formerly 

 applied so unmistakable, that when once pointed out no further doubts 

 can be entertained on the matter." The only real difference we notice 

 between those of New Jersey and Scandinavia, is the absence of per- 



' Stoue Age, 3d ed., p. 10, j)l. i, ligs. 1-11. 



