94 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



" limande " form (pi. 17, fig. 2, /). In size they range from 174 to 

 50 mm in length, 78 to 42 mm in width, and 27 mm to 15 mm in 

 thickness. 



Sixteen specimens have been classified as hoes. These are long and 

 thin and as a group show less severe usage on the broad or blade end 

 (pi. 17, fig. 2, 111). In size they approximate the larger axes but are 

 more often rectilinear in outline than the latter. It is of course impos- 

 sible to distinguish between hoes and axes in all cases. The presump- 

 tion is that the former were lashed onto a bent or crotched stick as was 

 the case with the shoulder-blade hoe so common throughout the Plains. 



Only two specimens have been classified as picks. These are of 

 rather rough workmanship and culminate in a point instead of a blade 

 (pi. 17, fig. 2, ?). The specimen illustrated measures 177 by 75 by 

 34 mm. The other artifact of this type is larger and heavier, measuring 

 120 mm in length and 75 mm in breadth. It is roughly retouched all 

 over but is rounded on top, having a small and irregular point or pick. 

 Whether either specimen was hafted is open to question. 



Work in Bone 



Lost Creek sites in general yield large quantities of bone work, and 

 house I was no exception in this regard. Shoulder-blade hoes, mostly 

 in fragments, and many smaller bone artifacts were recovered. One 

 particularly excellent specimen of bison scapula hoe was found in the 

 floor layer (pi. 6, fig. 2, a). This specimen, 25 cm long by 13 cm in 

 width at the blade end, has a very sharp edge and was in thoroughly 

 usable condition when left in the house. The spines had been ground 

 down and a broad groove made over the top of the glenoid process for 

 the attachment of a handle. Two large, evenly bored perforations had 

 been made on the blade for a lashing across the tip of the handle. 

 The groove across the top, as well as the perforations on the blade, 

 suggest that the elbow of the handle may have fitted over the glenoid 

 process and extended down over the face of the blade. Lashings 

 across the tip of the handle and around the neck of handle and blade 

 would have held it firmly in place. In historic specimens the handle is 

 fitted and lashed under rather than over the bone blade. The edge of 

 the specimen in question had been ground down to a place where 

 further sharpening would have reached the tip of the handle. In cache 

 I a large bison scapula was found in process of manufacture into a 

 hoe. The spines had been ground down but the blade edge was 

 unworked. In all, 25 fragments of what had evidently been scapula 

 hoes were recovered. These show sharpened edges and in some cases 

 perforations like those in the complete specimen previously described. 



