3G 



PECKED, GROUND AND POLISHED STONE. 



process (Fig. 140, quartzose rock, Indiana). There is a cast in the collection, 

 presenting the fac-simile of a flat implement of rhomboidal outline, showing 

 very glossy side-surfaces which seem to have been used in polishing (Fig. 

 141, Louisiana). Other specimens are shaped like very flat celts of equal 

 thickness, in which, as it appears, the blunt edges formed the working parts. 

 It is possible, however, that specimens of this form were intended for other 

 operations. A curious class of implements supposed to have served as polish 

 ers, consists of stick or club-shaped stones mostly natural formations, but 

 sometimes modified by art which bear at their ends the marks of friction 

 (Fig. 142, lydite, Pennsylvania). 



14, Stone Vessels, -Though nearly all classes of aboriginal relics are rep 

 resented on a large scale in the National Museum, the series of vessels of 

 stone is particularly distinguished by the number as well as by the diversity 

 of the specimens. The most elaborate objects of this kind are derived from 

 the California!! islands (San Miguel, Santa Cruz, Santa Catalina, etc.), and 

 from the opposite coast, a region where the aborigines excelled in various 

 kinds of manufactures. 



149 



144 



STONE VESSELS (-|). 



It appeai-s that vessels consisting of hard kinds of stone occur rarely 

 in that part of the United States which lies east of the Rocky Mountains. In 

 the Atlantic and Middle States, however, vessels made of the comparatively 

 soft potstone (commonly called soapstone the lapis ollaris of the ancients) 

 have often been met. They diifer, of course, in shape and workmanship, some 



