SINKERS. 



161 



Sink-stones encompassed by a groove form a rather numerous class of North 

 American prehistoric relics. They are very often rounded pebbles, showing no 

 other artificial modification but the groove, which is mostly produced by pecking, 

 but in some cases by pecking and additional grinding. In soft material the 

 groove is cut out. Now and then the form of the stone, if not suitable in its 

 natural state, has been somewhat modified by art; and there are specimens, 

 especially small ones, in which the original surface of the stone has totally dis- 

 appeared in the process of fashioning it. 



Fig. 262.— Rhode Island. (17813). 



Fig. 203.— California. (18597). 



Figs. 262 aud 263.— Stone sinkers. 



Domingo, is elevated about seven hundred feet above the base of a limestone mountain, a mile north from the 

 village, and is accessible only by a steep path. The mouth to this cave has an arch spanning eighty feet by twenty 

 in height, and the plane of its floor cuts the horizon at an angle of thirty degrees, until reaching a depth of 

 one hundred feet below the entrance. At the foot of this slope is a magnificent apartment, some three hundred 

 feet in diameter and fifty in height, with its sides ornamented with stalactites and stalagmites of every conceivable 

 form and variety. The floor is quite level; and at one extremity is a sparkling pool of clear, cold water. Be- 

 yond this ante-chamber, the cave extends into the mountain for a distance of more than two thousand feet, some- 

 times expanding into large halls, or forming regular arched passage-ways, several hundred feet in length, alter- 

 nately ascending and descending into ridges and valleys. On the walls, at the extreme end of the cave, are seve- 

 ral circular paintings, rudely executed with red ochre, and probably intended to represent the sun and moon. 

 There are also several representations of the human hand, done in black. Immediately fronting these drawings, 

 in the floor of the cave, is a small aperture through which, by means of ropes, access is obtained to an apartment 

 beneath. In this are fragments of arrow-heads, human bones, and antique pottery." — The Isthmus of Tehuan- 

 tepec : being the Results of a Survey for a Railroad to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, made by the Scientific 

 Commission tmder the Direction of Major J. O. Barnard, V. S. Engineers; New York, 1852; p. 243, etc. 



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