NORTH AMERICAN STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



By Chaules Rau. 



The division of the European stone age into a period of chipped stone, 

 and a succeeding one of ground or polished stone, or, into the palaeo- 

 lithic and neolithic periods, seems to be fully borne out by facts, and is 

 likely to remain an uncontroverted basis for future investigation in 

 Europe. In Xorth America chipi)ed as well as ground implements are 

 abundant; yet they occur promiscuously, and thus tar cannot be re- 

 ferred respectively to certain epochs in the development of the abo- 

 rigines of the countr}^ ArcluTCological investigation in North America, 

 however, is but of recent date, and a careful examination of our caves 

 and drift-beds i^ossibly may lead to results similar to those obtained in 

 Europe. When in the latter i)art of the world man lived contempo- 

 raneously with the now extinct large pachydermatous and carnivorous 

 animals, he used unground flint tools of rude workmanship, which were 

 superseded in the later stages of the European stone age, comprising 

 the neolithic period, by more finished articles of flint and other stone, 

 many of which were brought into final shape by the processes of grind- 

 ing and polishing. In North America stone implements likewise have 

 been found associated with the osseous remains of extinct animals; yet 

 these implements, it appears, differed in no wise from those in use among 

 the aborigines at the period of their first intercourse with the whites. 



In the year 1839, the late Dr. Albert C. Koch discovered in the bot- 

 tom of the Bourbeuse Eiver, in Gasconade County, Missouri, the re- 

 mains of a ■Mastodon giganteiis under very peculiar circumstances. The 

 greater portion of the bones appeared more or less burned, and there 

 was sufflcient evidence that the fire had been kindled by human agency, 

 and with the design of killing the huge creature, which had been found 

 mired in the mud, and in an entirely helpless condition. The animal's 

 fore and hind legs, untouched by the fire, were in a perpendicular posi- 

 tion, with the toes attached to the feet, showing that the ground in 

 which the animal had sunk, now a grayish-colored clay, was in a plastic 

 condition when the occurrence took place. Those portions of the skele- 

 ton, however, which had been exposed above the surface of the clay, 

 were partially consumed by the fire, and a layer of wood-ashes and 

 charred bones, varying in thickness from two to six inches, indicated 

 that the burning had been continued for some length of time. The fire 

 ai)peared>to have been most destructive around the head of the animal. 

 Miu^'led with the ashes and bones was a large number of broken pieces 



