RELICS OF THE STONE AGE IN NOVA SCOTIA PIERS. 45 



the sap of the rock maple. Surely the axes or adzes were well 

 adapted to making the requisite incision in the bark, and this 

 having been done, a piece of birch-bark, always available, was 

 without doubt employed to conduct the fluid so it should fall 

 into a receptacle beneath. Dr. Gilpin also was mistaken in 

 supposing that gouges, etc., were used in making arrow-heads. 

 We must never lose sight of the fact that the Indian had a fragile 

 material from which to form his tools, and he had therefore to 

 handle them with much care. The fair, and frequently very 

 excellent state of preservation in which we find the edge of most 

 cutting implements, shows that they were not often taxed 

 beyond their strength. 



Seventeen gouges are in the Fairbanks collection (Figs. 56_ 

 72). In length the perfect specimens vary from 5.50 to 10.50 

 inches. With perhaps one or two exceptions, all taper more or 

 Jess toward the extremity furthest from the crescent-shaped 

 edge. The one which most plainly exhibits this tapered form, 

 measures 2 inches in width near the latter edge, and thence 

 tapers regularly to a small rounded end at the other extremity 

 its total length being 6'50 inches (Fig. 63). These implements 

 are often of noticeable symmetry, and probably were once well- 

 polished. They are formed of stones of only moderete hardness. 



The extent of the groove which gives them their characteristic 

 form, varies much. Such variations, doubtless indicate different 

 uses to which the tool was to be put. 



In some, the groove is almost entirely indistinguishable and 

 confined to the vicinity of the cutting edge. They thus pass 

 gradually into the adze-form, which this tool otherwise greatly 

 resembles. Three or four of the gouges before me, are of this 

 unpronounced shape (Figs. 56-58, 60). They vary from 8'50 to a 

 little more than 6 inches in length. 



Six specimens have the groove extending about half the 

 length (Figs. 59, 61-65)*. They vary from 6 to 1050 inches in 



* A specimen (Fig. 93) in the McCulloch collection, Dalhousie College, differs a little 

 from typical examples of this form, and slightly exhibits the transition to that in which 

 the groove extends throughout. 



