80 BULLETIN 183, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



25, &) ; one has been blackened by fire. The third specimen, 71 mm. 

 long and more slender than the foregoing, is of some unidentified slate- 

 gray (calcined ?) bone. 



A scapula, unidentified as to animal species, has been fashioned into 

 a digging tool or knife (pi. 25, a) . The head and spine appear to have 

 been hacked or broken off. Evidently split lengthwise, the specimen 

 also lacks the axillary and vertebral borders. The cutting edge, which 

 is curved, has fine striations on the posterior surface, whereas the 

 anterior surface is well worn. With a maximum length of 175 mm. 

 and a width of 48 mm., the implement is much smaller than the scapula 

 hoes or spades typical of the eastern plains. At the same time it is 

 strong enough to have made a convenient and serviceable hand tool for 

 working the soil or for digging pits. From the smooth character of 

 part of the thinned edge, it might also have been used as a scraper or in 

 cutting soft substances. 



Of unknown function is the piece illustrated in plate 25, c. Fash- 

 ioned from some heavy mammal bone, it has one broken end, while 

 the other has been brought to a rounding sharpened edge. One side 

 is hollowed lengthwise, evidently owing to the tubular construction 

 of the bone used. The other, as shown, has a long narrow striated 

 depression presumably cut out or ground by the native workmen. 

 The surfaces, and to a degree the broken end also, have been 

 well smoothed. 



Out of midden 1 came the worked phalangeal deer bone shown 

 in plate 25, d. The proximal end has been hacked off but not 

 smoothed down. The distal extremity has a narrow notch cut deeply 

 into the groove, separating the two lateral condyles and opening into 

 the marrow cavity. The hole is large enough to take a small cord 

 and suggests that the object was intended to be strung on a necklace 

 or, perhaps, attached to some part of the clothing or costume. Part 

 of the bone has been blackened by fire. 



The incomplete right half of a deer mandible, which in my opinion 

 has been worked (pi. 20, /), came from pit 4. The jawbone has been 

 broken off 17 mm. beyond the first premolar ; the fracture is rounded 

 and worn, and adjacent surfaces show a high polish. Immediately 

 behind the last molar is a narrow polished groove suggestive of the 

 action of a cord or thong, which has cut into the ramus on one side 

 and on the other into the tooth. Below the teeth both surfaces of 

 the jawbone seem to be unusually worn and shiny, at any rate more 

 so than is the case with the ramus. The teeth except as noted are 

 sharp and undamaged and exhibit no certain evidences of wear or 

 abrasion. Several dozen deer mandibles in the collections of the Di- 

 vision of Mammals, U. S. National Museum, have been examined, and 

 while they present some variations none shows evidences of modifi- 

 cations such as have been described above. With due regard to the 



