STONE AGE IN NEW JERSEY. 377 



v>Q doubt not, are the scratcbes of porpliyry skiiming-kiiivcs, ^vboso 

 dulled edjics were being restored. The principal sbarpening-surface is 

 on tlie upper edge of tbe specimen, which is here about three-fourths of 

 an inch wide, and extends over about one-half of the length, leaving 

 one-fourth at each end, just as in the preceding specimen, which has 

 not been used, and presents the rough, pitted, natural surface of the 

 stone. 



Polishing and sharpening stone with such a tool as this is facilitated 

 very nuich by the addition of water and very fine sand, and both were 

 l)robabIy used by the aborigines, as we know them to have been used 

 in drilling the beautiful banner-stones. 



Figure 223 represents a veiy common form of polishing-tool, and one 

 perhaps more properly named than the two preceding specimens, which 

 might be classed by themselves as whetstones. It is a small quadrangu- 

 lar pebble of horn-stone, which has been " pecked " over the whole 

 surface to bring it into its present shape. The middle of the specimen 

 is widest and thickest, and from thence it slopes toward each side and 

 end. One end, as will be noticed in the illustration, is curved instead 

 of square, and polished instead of " pecked." This polished surface is 

 the polishing pointy being that which was rubbed in the grooves of axes 

 and other similar points to give them a smooth surface. This rubbing 

 has produced a sort of an edge at one corner, but not sharp at all, like 

 a skinning-kuife. When once a rounded corner has been produced on 

 a poiishing-tool, as in this specimen, which is of hard mineral, it is com- 

 paratively easy, with the addition of sand and water, to deepen, smooth, 

 and acourately curve a groove such as we find on the ordinary cobble- 

 stone ax, some of which, as we have seen, have beautifully-polished 

 grooves, which, of course, are rendered smoother and perhaps deeper 

 by the Avear of the withes or sinews used in strapping the handle. 



CONCLUSION. 



Having given such facts as appeared to be pertinent to the subject 

 in describing the several classes of implements of which we have here 

 treated, there is little remaining to be said. Until future discoveries 

 throw more light ui)on the particular uses of each kind of implement 

 and weapon, but little more will be learned from these si)ecimens beyond 

 the facts given of the unquestionable identity of stone implements 

 tliroughout the world, and their indication of man's oiiginal barbaric 

 condition. 



No question in the whole range of anthropological science b.as re- 

 ceived more attention than how America was originally peopled, and 

 everything bearing upon it, however remotely, is of value to those who 

 seek to answer it. The stone implements we have beeui describing have 

 something to do with this question. Maintaining, of course, the develop- 

 ment of all mankind from a palaeolithic to a neolithic condition, and 

 believing that the "rude implements" which we have described in 



