ABORIGINAL REMAINS.—PIERS. 281 
may be consequent upon a peculiar method of using the imple- 
ment or it may be intentional. I only mention it as I see it 
occurring in our specimens. 
Chisels.—There is only one specimen which I have classified 
as a chisel, and even this may have been hafted and used in the 
same manner as a small jade adze in the Museum. 
Gouges.—There are eight unmistakable gouges before me, 
varying in length from 6.75 inches (smellest complete specimen) 
to 11.25 inches, and in form from those in which the concavity is 
confined to the lower part of the implement only to those in 
which it extends throughout their whole length. In one the 
concavity is remarkably deep, while another might almost be 
classed as achisel, so slight is the groove. Another specimen has 
been broken. Enough is left however to show that it was 
slender. The groove is very evenly made and probably ran from 
end to end. What is chiefly remarkable about this gouge, how- 
ever, is that it is made of the same material as the two tubes 
which I shall mention further on, The style of workmanship is 
also much the same in both. Another gouge exhibits to a re- 
markable degree, the obliquity of edge which has been already 
mentioned.* 
Adzes—These I have treated of in connection with the 
celts. 
Grooved Axes—These implements, although common in 
the United States, are quite rare in Nova Scotia. They could 
never be used to cut down a tree. For the process of “girdling” 
they were better adapted. After a tree was killed by this means, 
fire was resorted to, and the stone axe was used to clear away 
the charred wood. ‘The same implement upon oceasion, could 
also be used as a weapon, while the rounded, or blunt end, was 
well suited to breaking open bones in order to extract the mar- 
row. This last use probably accounts for the battered apperance 
of that portion of these articles. Dr. Gilpin suggests that they 
may also have been used for detaching the bark from the birch 
tree. 
* There is some doubt as to where this specimen was obtained. It may be from Newfoundland 
and consequently the work of Bethuks. 
