44 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



[Vol. IV. 



Thus in fig. 3 we have a celt of a dark coloured, very close-grained rock 

 which shows absolutely no sign of polish except at the cutting edge 

 and, if I am to credit the Indian from whom it was obtained and who 

 used it for some time as a skin scraper, even this faintly polished edge 

 was wanting when the instrument was found on the surface of the 

 ground. It would seem that these rude, unpolished axes were, at least 

 among the Carriers, much more common than those entirely or even 

 partially polished. 



i'ig- 3- Yi size. 



Fig. 4. yi size. 



Fig. 4 hardly exhibits any trace of improvement on that primitive 

 pattern. Indeed the specimen it represents has even cost the maker a 

 smaller amount of exertion, since one of its flat surfaces is merely the 

 original surface of a blackish siliceous stone in its natural water-worn 

 state, while the reverse is evidently the result of the splitting of the 

 pebble out of which the implement has been made. Were it not for the 

 unmistakable attempt at obtaining by friction a finer edge than is usual 

 in scrapers, one would almost suppose that it has been designed for 

 dressing skins rather than cutting wood. 



The specimen illustrated by fig. 5, though unpolished except at its 

 broadest end, is more axe-like in shape. It is of a shaly rock externally 

 rusty-looking, but internally of a reddish gray transversely striated with 

 fine parallel lines. 



The implement represented by fig. 6 again differs both in form and 

 material from all the preceding specimens of stone axes. It might be 

 described as gouge-shaped, were itnot that no concavity corresponds to 

 the convex exterior. No attempt at diminishing by friction the bulging 

 surface of the stone has been made ; its main asperities only have been 



