684 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS-. 



our rivers and lakes stones of requisite dimensions for such use could 

 be easily obtained, llougli stoues, demanding no labor for their j>rep- 

 aration, were probaby so used since the first canoes were launched. 

 Taken from the nearest point when needed, they were cast aside at any 

 place when no longer wanted, bearing no mark or sign of their service. 

 In some instances the same stone was repeatedly used as an anchor 

 during the fishing season, and received from the fisherman some modi- 

 fication of form to better fit it for its office, and in a few exceptional 

 cases the anchor stone was completely and artistically fashioned from 

 the rough, angular rock. In one respect the aboriginal American did 

 not materially differ from a numerous class of his civilized successors j- 

 he had no especial fondness for manual labor. Consequently, it is not 

 surprising that he expended so little work on his stone anchors when 

 he found tbem to answer his purpose as well or better without it. 



Of the very few manufactured anchor stones, presumably of pre-his- 

 toric date, of which we have any account, I have been so fortunate as 

 to secure a fine specimen, which is figured on page 194 of the elabor- 

 ate monograph on Prehistoric Fishing, by the late learned curator of 

 the departiuentof antiquities of the Smithsonan Institution, Dr. Charles 

 Eau, accompanied by a brief description of it by myself in a note I ad- 

 dressed to the author. Before reproducing that description here I will 

 describe the first specimen of the kind that came into my possession, 

 and which was also mentioned in my note reftrred to.* 



This anchor stone, represented by Fig. 1 (accompanying Plate I), I 

 stated to Dr. Eau, was " apparently natural in its form ; a smooth, water- 

 worn river rock, etc." A subsequent careful inspection of the stone 

 proves this statement to be not altogether correct. By attrition and the 

 force of water currents it had probably approximated its present shape 

 in general outline; but it is plainly to be seen that its smooth, rounded 

 edges and uniform surfaces have been wrought with patient labor guided 

 by consummate skill. There is little doubt that this stone was designed 

 to serve a double purpose; or, having been made for a specific use, in 

 which it did duty for a time, was afterward converted, by cutting the 

 groove across it, into a canoe anchor. In diameter it is 12 inches, in thick- 

 ness 2J inches, and weighs 26 pounds. It is nearly circular, and its sur- 

 faces are concavo-convex; the one side convex to the extent of rising in 

 the center three-fourths of an inch above the plane of its circumference, 

 and the other side has been hollowed out to a corresponding depth. 

 Across its face and over the edges a groove has been cut an inch and a 

 quarter wide, but not deep; sufficiently deep, however, to clearly indi- 

 cate its use — or one of its uses — as an anchor. It is a white, crystal- 

 line limestone, from one of our local carborniferous strata that crop out 

 in manj" places on the Illinois Eiver. But for the vertical groove in this 

 specimen it would not differ materially from many others found here and 



* Prehistoric Fishing, pp. 194, 195 (Smithsoaian Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. 



XXV). 



