SMITHSONIAN ARCH^OLOGICAL COLLECTION. 41 



the natives used these stones for cracking nnts which they laid in the cavities, 

 applying a stone for breaking them. There are several of these "nut-stones" 

 in the collection. Specimens made of potstone have been found in districts of 

 ' Georgia where walnut-trees abound.^^ The Indians, it is well known, made oil 

 from the fruits of these trees (Fig. 160, sandstone, Pennsylvania) . There are, 

 however, stones showing (on one side only) artificial cup-shaped depressions 

 of such regularity and smoothness that another use mast be ascribed to 

 them. The specimens of the latter class which have thus far fallen under 

 the writer's notice were obtained in Ohio and Kcntuck}^ and their material 

 was sandstone. It is not known whether they were employed, as has been 

 suggested, in some game, or served as recejjtacles in which paint was rubbed, 

 or for some other jiurjjose (Fig. 160a, sandstone, Kentucky). lHot a few of 

 the stones with a cavity on each side, and commonly classed with the hammer- 

 stones previously descril^ed, may have served as nut-stones, and others 

 evidently were paint-mortars. Some specimens of the collection still bear the 

 traces of red paint in their cavities. 



16i Pestles, — These implements mostly foi-m supplementary parts of mor- 

 tars, and therefore naturally follow immediately after them in the present 

 enumeration. The specimens in the collection of the Xational Museum, which 

 can be counted by the himdred, were chiefly derived from the Eastern States, 

 from California and the IS^orthwestern districts. In addition, many have been 

 obtained from other parts of Korth America. There is considerable difterence 

 in their appearance, but the prevailing form seems to be that of a bluntly 

 pointed cone, swelling gradually toward the working j^ortion. Four-sided 

 pestles are of rather rare occurrence. In length pestles vary from a few inches 

 to two feet and more, and their thickness differs accordingly, though not 

 always in propoi'tion, short specimens being sometimes thick and elimisy, 

 while those of considerable length are of a relatively slender and tapei'ing 

 foi'm. Many specimens of the collection were found with the remai-kable 

 stone vessels and mortars on the islands of the Santa Barbara group and the 

 opposite main-land. They are partly of the simple conical shape to Avhich 

 allusion was made (Fig. 161, syenite, Santa Cruz Island). This elementary 

 form occurs in many parts of the United States. Other specimens expand at 

 the upper end into a kind of knob (Figs. 162 and 163, compact sandstone, Dos 

 Pueblos). In a third class an annular ridge surrounds the tool below the up- 

 per end, which tapers to a blunt point (Fig. 164, sandstone, Dos Pueblos). And 

 lastly, a variety has to be mentioned which exhibits a knob-like expanse at the 

 lower extremity (Fig. 165, amygdaloid, mound at Crescent City, California). 

 In the Kew England States pestles, more or less resembling a cylinder with 

 rounded ends, are quite frequent, and sometimes of considerable length (Fig. 

 166, fine-grained sandstone, Rhode Island). Though the extremities of these 



" C. C. Jones, "Autiquitics of the Southern Indians," New York. 1873, p. 315. 



