REPRESENTATIONS OF FISHES, AQUATIC MAMMALS, ETC. 



209 



under the anterior portion of the fin, in order to express the fact. If we regard 

 it in this light, the notches on the upper edge may be considered as indicating 

 the fin-rays; but the figure best shows the character of the sculpture, and 

 l^ersons interested can draw their own conclusions. 



" The symmetry of the whole carving is well carried out, both sides being 

 alike, with the exception that the raised portion at the postei'ior part of what I 

 have called the dorsal fin is a little more marked on the left side than on the 

 right, and the edge on the same side is surrounded by a faint, irregularly-drawn 

 line. 



" The carving was, I think, unquestionably made by an Indian of the tribe 

 once numerous in this vicinity, and, as it was almost bej'ond a doubt cut by a 

 stone tool of some kind, it must be considered as quite an ancient work of art, 

 probably worn as a ' medicine,' and possibly indicated either the name of the 

 wearer or that he was a noted fisherman."* 



This specimen is probably still in possession of the finder. 



Professor Putnam has also given an account of a stone-carving representing 

 a cetacean animal, preserved in the collection of the Amesbury Natural History 

 Club. It is here represented in two views as Fig. 353. I describe it in his own 

 words, merely changing the past into the present tense : — 



Fig. 353. — Stone-carving in the form of a cetacean. Seabrook. 



" It rudely represents a porpoise, or, still better, a white whale or Beluga, 

 as it has no protuberance representing the dorsal fin of the porpoise, and the 



* Putn.am: Description of an Ancient Indian Carving, found in Ipswich, Mass. ; Bulletin of the Essex 



Institute, Vol. IV, No. 11. 



r27 



