COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 53 



them are slightly grooved and retouched upon the edges, so as to offer 

 a serrated border, for which reason they are classified as saws. Another 

 common form of stone implement is that of the scraper. They are usu 

 ally chipped on one side only, the other being left in its natural condi 

 tion, the front edge being more or less grooved, while the opposite end 

 is arranged for adjustment into a wooden handle. They offer a variety 

 of forms, some being circular, others oblong, elliptical, etc,. Somewhat 

 similar in character are flakes and pieces of stone, usually oval in out 

 line, which have been chipped to a point at one end, the border being 

 sometimes also chipped to an ed&amp;lt;e, at others left blunt. 



The use of stone arrowheads and lance heads was very common 

 in Uruguay. More than 9,000 specimens are mentioned in the cata 

 logue as having been found, showing the various forms with which we 

 are familiar in those obtained in the United States. The material 

 of which they are made is generally jasper or quartz, and they are 

 worked with a great deal of skill, with symmetrical outlines, testifying 

 to the long practice of their makers. 



Although no mention is made of the discovery of quarries, yet the 

 material from them in the form of cores or nuclei is abundant on these 

 village sites. They were evidently brought, as in the United States, 

 from some locality more or less distant, and worked up at the village 

 at leisure. 



Another implement found in considerable numbers shows that the 

 same character of technical industry prevailed here as in the northern 

 continent. These are the hammer stones, the use of which was to 

 break the flakes from the core and chip its sides. 



A rounded fragment of hard rock, of various sizes to suit the hand 

 and the weight of the blow desired, was its simplest form. Some of them 

 are oblong in shape, and they often present a small depression on each 

 surface, no doubt intended as pits for the extremities of the fingers, 

 thus allowing them to be used for striking a blow with greater accuracy. 

 Others, again, have a groove around the center, evidently for the pur 

 pose of permitting them to be fastened securely to a handle. 



This form of hammer stone brings them into close relation to a stone 

 implement more common in this part of the continent than in any 

 other, and almost unknown throughout the area of the United States. 

 These are what are called the sling stones or bolas, which are charac 

 teristic of the greater portion of South America, south of Brazil. They 

 are in the shape of a roundish stone, generally polished, with a groove 

 around the center, by which they were fastened to a cord or string. 

 They were used in two methods by the primitive inhabitants, the one 

 intended to capture the animal, the other to kill him. In the former, 

 two stones were tied together at the two ends of the cord, about six 

 feet apart, although three could be used, on cords fastened together in 

 the form of the letter Y- This form is quite common to-day in Pata 

 gonia, where it is the favorite method of capturing ostriches; but it is 



