688 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS. 



But with the others their claim to prehistoric origin rests more on pre 

 snmptiou and assumption than upon positive evidence. They were 

 sculptured in symmetrical form from rough blocks by precisely the 

 same method employed by pre-historic makers of stone celts and grooved 

 axes, who reduced fragments and small bowlders of igneous rocks to 

 the required shapes of finished impiements by pecking them down with 

 pointed pieces of flint or quartz. Of all the stones used as anchors in 

 the historic period (of North America) there is not an instance recorded 

 of one of them having been wrought throughout by this method. But 

 stones are at this day modified by the pecking process for use as anchors 

 by Indians, and it may be, by whites also. 



A few summers ago my collection was visited by Dr. W. H. Daly, an 

 eminent physician of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as he was returning 

 from one of his annual hunting and fishing excursions, this time to the 

 northern lakes. The anchor stones attracted his notice, and he told me 

 that a few days ago he had seen quite a number (fifty or more) "stones 

 like those, with grooves cut around them," scattered along the lake 

 shore near the town of Bayfield, in Wisconsin, Here indeed was a rev- 

 elation ; enough anchor stones to stock all the museums of our coun- 

 try. I lost no time in writing to a friend at Bayfield, and the corre- 

 spondence in due time fructified in my receipt of two of the anxiously 

 expected objects, one of which is represented by Fig. 7 (Plate III), ac- 

 companied by a brief account of them as follows: " The stones you inquire 

 about, two of which I to-day express to you as requested, are not pre- 

 histoi-ic, but very recent. They are the common water- worn bowlders of 

 primitive rocks found everywhere on our lake shores by thousands. The 

 Indians (Chippewas) living up north come down here every spring to 

 fish, and use these stones to anchor their bark canoes while fishing near 

 the lake shore. As the bowlders are quite smooth, and mostly round, 

 the fishermen have to cut grooves around them to hold the anchor lines. 

 This they do very quickly and expertly by pecking the groove out with 

 sharp-pointed pieces of quartz and other hard rocks. When they get 

 done fishing here they leave these grooved bowlders on the shore for 

 use again the next spring. Some are lost by rolling into the lake and 

 others are carried away by floating ice; so they have to be replenished 

 by making new ones every year." Fig. 7, 1 was assured, was fairly rep- 

 resentative of the entire lot. It is a polished bowlder of dense, bluish 

 trap, weighing 3ii pounds, and is 11 inches in length by 9J inches in 

 diameter at the middle. The groove is an inch wide and three-fourths 

 of an inch deep, and presents the same pitting that marks the entire 

 surfaces of Figs. 5 and (J. 



On receiving the grooved bowlders I immediately wrote to my la- 

 mented friend. Dr. Ran, giving him a minute description and drawings 

 of them, and inclosing a copy of the foregoing letter. But his Prehis- 

 toric Fishing had then passed through the press, and he answered : 

 " What a pity that your valuable discovery of modern aachoi: 8.tone% 

 came post festum.^^ 



