984 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



ofAvliieb are uiikuown to our modern Iudiaii,but even the races or peo- 

 ples by whom they Avere made; all of which gives rise to numberless 

 speculations? 



There are certain other large stone implements of leaf-shaped ibrm 

 resembling Class B, and from description and drawing might be assigned 

 to it. These are the so called hoes or agricultural implements. Their 

 locality is extensive, but nevertheless, is limited to the interior, say 

 from Ohio to Georgia, and from the Virginia mountains to the western 

 Mississippi Valley. The im])lemeuts are large, being from 6 to IG inches 

 in length, with corresponding width and thickness. They are of 

 quartzite, novaculite, chert, and similar material, and are always 

 chipped. Although resembling in form the ordinary leaf-shaped imjde- 

 ment, they have no other or further relation to it. While they are more 

 or less jjoiuted at both ends, yet they are not sufficiently so for thrust- 

 ing or piercing, and were evidently never intended for such purposes. 

 They may have been inserted in a handle, though no traces of it have 

 ever been found, or they may have been held in the hands. An inspec- 

 tion shows them to have been used as an implement for digging in the 

 earth. The point is frequently worn smooth and dull for several inches 

 jip the blade, showing stria; and even notches, the result of friction in 

 the earth by digging. 



These implements are sometimes found en cache. The collection of 

 the Missouri Historical Society displayed at the World's Fair held in 

 Chicago, in 1893, under the direction of Mr. William J. Seever, contained 

 many of these implements, chiefly from the neighborhood of St. Louis, 

 some of which were from caches. See Appendix A (quarries), Illinois, 

 p. 966, and Appendix B (caches), p. 974. 



