112 



though the grit would be avoided if such pestles were 

 used in wooden mortars similar to those in use b}' the 

 eai'ly white settlers in this country. The extreme softness 

 of the stone of which these large pear-shaped implements 

 were made, combined with the fact that they seldom ex- 

 hibit signs of use at their rounded end, was the only 

 argument against their use as pestles. But as an argu- 

 ment that they were sometimes used as pestles it was 

 stated by one of the gentlemen of the Amesbury Club 

 that the specimen on the table was found in a stone 

 mortar ; there was also a specimen in the Salem col- 

 lection that was said to have been found in the same 

 connection. Some of the arrowheads among the speci- 

 mens were very line, and exhibited the several forms, 

 from the leaf-shaped to the barbed and stemmed, several 

 specimens being of the form, having one of the wings 

 longer than the other. While some of the symmetrical 

 arrowheads were very long and slender, others were of 

 the short and broad shape. There were also in the col- 

 lection a number of specimens of stone-drills which are 

 often placed by collectors with the arrowpoints, ])ut 

 which on examination show that a ditferent use was in- 

 tended, and implements of this character are now believed 

 to have been made and used simply for the pui'pose of 

 drilling holes in other implements. One of the largest 

 and most perfect of these drills which ^Ir. Putnam had 

 ever seen was exhibited. 



Besides these various implements there was a very in- 

 teresting carved stone belonging to the collection, which 

 Mr. Putnam had obtained permission to figure. It rudely 

 represented a porpoise or still better a white whale or 

 Beluga, as it had no protuberance representing the dor- 

 sal fin of the porpoise, and the Beluga is without the fin. 

 The nippers or pectoral fins were re[)resented by the pro- 



