284 ABORIGINAL REMAINS.—PIERS. 
each.) They show no traces of abrasion. Length of tablet 6.50 
inches nearly ; breadth at extremities 1.50 in.; at middle 1.20 
in. This implement was found in a Kitchen-midden at Smith’s 
Cove, near Digby, by Mr. Robert Austin, and was presented by 
him to the Museum, 1887. Accompanying it was the following 
note. 
“ An instrument used by the Micmacs in the stone age, for 
scraping scraps of fat and other integuments from the skins of 
Moose and Cariboo, when making them wearable. The two 
holes in this instrument were for the purpose of preparing the 
sinews of the animals for serving as bowstrings. ‘The sinew was 
inserted at the larger end of the hole and pulled through the 
smaller end.—J. AMBROSE,* Digby, N. 8.” 
The second specimen (Fig. 2) isin the Webster collection. The 
workmanship is very much inferior to that of the one from Smith’s 
Cove. It is formed of a banded slate of a greenish color. The 
sides are nearly parallel, and the extremities bevelled so as to 
form an edge, which is blunted, apparently from use. The 
perforations are like those in the specimen just described, except 
that they are closer together and not so truly placed. One side 
shows a conical pit close to one of the perforations. Here, 
evidently, the maker of the implement first set his drill, then, 
for some reason, he abandoned the place and drilled a perforation 
close alongside. Greatest length, 5.50 in.; breadth, about 1.60 
in.; thickness, varying from .45 to.24 in. Distance between the 
perforations, measuring from the centre of each, nearly one inch. 
Stones used in Grinding and Polishing.—A piece of slate in 
the collection seems to have been employed in rubbing down or 
polishing some piece of work. One edge in particular is 
rounded throughout its length, as though it had been used for 
sharpening a gouge or some other implement of like form. One 
face of our specimen has fourteen parallel oblique lines scratched 
upon it. 
Tubes.—These objects have always puzzled greatly those 
archeologists who have striven to assign a use for such singular 
implements, the fashioning of which must have cost their makers 
much hard labor. Schooleraft considered the larger ones to be 
* Rey. John Ambrose, D. C. L. 
