RELICS OF THE STONE AGE IN NOVA SCOTIA—PIERS. 45 
the sap of the rock maple. Surely the axes or adzes were well 
adapted to making the requisite incision in the bark, and this 
having been done, a piece of birch-bark, always available, was 
without doubt employed to conduct the fluid so it should fall 
into a receptacle beneath. Dr. Gilpin also was mistaken in 
supposing that gouges, ete., were used in making arrow-heads. 
We must never lose sight of the fact that the Indian had a fragile 
material from which to form his tools, and he had therefore to 
handle them with much care. The fair, and frequently very 
excellent state of preservation in which we find the edge of most 
cutting implements, shows that they were not often taxed 
beyond their strength. 
Seventeen gouges are in the Fairbanks collection (Figs. 56_ 
72). In length the perfect specimens vary from 5.50 to 10.50 
inches. With perhaps one or two exceptions, all taper more or 
Jess toward the extremity furthest from the crescent-shaped 
edge. The one which most plainly exhibits this tapered form, 
measures 2 inches in width near the latter edge, and thence 
tapers regularly to a small rounded end at the other extremity , 
its total length being 6°50 inches (Fig. 63). ‘These implements 
are often of noticeable symmetry, and probably were once well- 
polished. They are formed of stones of only moderete hardness. 
The extent of the groove which gives them their characteristic 
form, varies much. Such variations, doubtless indicate different 
uses to which the tool was to be put. 
In some, the groove is almost entirely indistinguishable and 
confined to the vicinity of the cutting edge. They thus pass 
gradually into the adze-form, which this tool otherwise greatly 
resembles. Three or four of the gouges before me, are of this 
unpronounced shape (Figs. 56-58, 60). Thev vary from 8°50 to a 
little more than 6 inches in length. 
Six specimens have the groove extending about half the 
length (Figs. 59, 61-65)*. They vary from 6 to 1050 inches in 
* A specimen (Fig. 93) in the McCulloch collection, Dalhousie College, differs a little 
from typical examples of this form, and slightly exhibits the transition to that in which 
the groove extends throughout. 
