406 



NORTH AMERICAN STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



Hon of cm. ohl-fashiofted sivord deposited with tlie decayed bones of the 

 skeleton. This tuniuhis was conical in shape, about seven feet high, 

 and possessed a base diameter of some twenty feet. It contidned only 

 Fig. 4. one skeleton, and that lay, with the articles I have 



enumerated, at the bottom of the mound, and on a 

 level with the plain. The oaken hilt, most of the 

 guard, and about seven inches of the blade of the 

 sword still remained. The rest of the blade had per- 

 ished from rust. Strange to say, the oak had best 

 resisted the ' gnawing tooth of time.' This mound 

 had never been opened or in any way disturbed, ex- 

 cept by the winds and rains of the changing seasons. 

 I have no doubt but that the interment was primary, 

 and that all the articles enumerated were deposited 

 with the dead before this mound-tomb was heaped 

 above him. This, within the range of my observa- 

 tion, is an interesting and exceptional case. I am 

 i:)ersuaded that mound-building, at least upon the 

 Georgia coast, was abandoned by the natives \evj shortlj' after their 

 I)rimal contact with the whites." 



From mound-building I turn again to North American flint imple- 

 ments. Mr. Stevens refers in his work to the absence of flint scrapers 

 in the series from the United States exhibited in the Blackmore Museum. 

 Scrapers of the European spoon-shaped type, however, are not as scarce 

 in the United States as Mr. Stevens seems to suppose. The collection 

 of the Smithsonian Institution contains a number of them ; and I found 

 myself two characteristic specimens in the Kjokkenmoddiug at Key- 

 port, New Jersej', described by me in the Smithsonian report for 1864. 

 They lay upon the shell-covered ground, a short distance from each other, 

 and were perhaps made by the same hand. In Fig. 4 I give a full-size 

 drawing of one of my specimens, both of which consist of a brown kind 

 of flint, such as probably would be called jasper by mineralogists. The 



Fig. 5. 



figured specimen, it will be seen, possesses all 

 the characteristics of a European scraper. Its 

 lower surface is formed by a single curved 

 fracture. The rounded head is somewhat 

 turned toward the right, a feature likewise ex- 

 hibited in the other specimen, which is a little 

 larger, but not quite as typical as the original 

 of Fig. 4. As the peculiar curve of the broad 

 part is observable in both specimens, it must 

 be considered as having been produced inten- 

 tionally. Indeed, I have among my flint scrap- 

 ers from the pilework at Eobenhausen one 

 which is curved in the same direction. In fash- 

 ioning their implements in this particular manner, the Indian and the 

 ancient lake-man possibly had the same object in view. 



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