740 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Stromhiis gigas. This part of tlie shell is very thick and harder than 

 stone. It is certain that the Caribs did not use the living Stromhus, 

 but were careful to take the fossil Strombi^ which had in time acquired 

 the hardness of ivory. 



^tone for maMng axes. — I have in my possession a very interesting 

 stone, which has inscribed on it the use for which it was intended. It 

 has concavities on three of its surfaces. It is evidently a kind of 

 grind-stone, on which stones were rubbed in order to shape them. 



Since writing the above, I have had the good fortune to discover in 

 Grande-terre, in a iiiece of ground which had not been plowed for 60 

 or 80 years, two tools of flaked flint — a knife and hacking-knife. This 

 discovery somewhat modifies the theory held to this day by writers on 

 America that Jlaked Jiint does not exist in the Antilles. 



It is very evident however that these two flints were not dug from 

 the soil of the island and then flaked by their possessor, for this stone 

 does not exist in Grande-terre or Guadeloupe in a state of nature. 



These two flaked flints establish, in an irrefutable manner, the fact 

 of a migration of men from the valleys of the Orinoco towards the 

 islands. 



I. UNPOLISHED IMPLEMENTS. 



These do not form a class apart, but they are exceedingly useful as 

 showing the method of blocking out the more elaborate implements, 

 when nature has not supplied a polished pebble suificiently near to the 

 desired pattern. The three methods of chipping, picking, and grinding 

 are all outlined in this group (Figs. 1-8). 



/•<^ 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 1. An uusymmetrical, rude blade, of mottled brown and gray 

 color. The surfaces are nearly as they were left by the removal of great 

 spalls; but the edge is ground, and has that peculiar slope belonging 

 to old axes battered on the corner away from the workman. There is 

 as yet no indication of groove or haft notches, and, therefore, if the 



