ANCHOK-STONES. 195 



river-rock, two inches and a half in thickness, twelve in diameter, and slightly 

 concavo-convex ; it is nearly circular, with rounded edges. Across one of its 

 faces runs a groove, an inch or more wide, but not deep ; sufficient, however, to 

 indicate its use. It is a white stone, of silicious character, I think, and harder 

 than the sandrock. This object was exhumed from an old Indian grave, or 

 rather from a low, flat sand-mound, on the bank of the Illinois River, near 

 Beardstown, in this county (Cass). The enclosed skeleton was very much 

 decayed, extended at full length, with the head to the east, and the back of the 

 skull lying in the concave surface of the stone, which seemed to have been 

 placed as a pillow under the occiput of the corpse. Under each shoulder and 

 each hip, and under each heel of the skeleton was found a common, smooth 

 water- worn pebble as large as a hen's egg. A few flint arrow-points and three 

 scales of the alligator-gar completed the sepulchral deposit. I have not weighed 

 this stone, but judge that it will not exceed twenty-five pounds." 



In another communication Dr. Snyder speaks of an anchor-stone, now 

 destroyed, which was also found in the same neighborhood in the bed of the 

 Illinois River, and was similar to that here figured. " It was," he says, " almost 

 an exact copy of mine, in material, dimensions, and weight." 



Very large notched pebbles and perforated stone slabs might have been used 

 as anchor-stones ; but specimens thus modified, to which I could assign that 

 application with any degree of positivencss, have not fallen under my notice. 



Stones are still employed instead of anchors for small craft in Europe as 

 well as in North America, and probably all over the world. With regard to 

 North American anchor-stones, therefore, some discrimination is required to 

 discover whether an object of this class is a relic of the former inhabitants or of 

 their white successors, and there may be cases in which a proper distinction 

 becomes well-nigh impossible. Our fishermen on the great lakes and rivers 

 almost universally use stones in lieu of anchors. On the Susquehanna, I am 

 informed, they employ an unaltered stone slab of an elongated, approximately 

 rectangular form, preferring one which is naturally indented or inwardly curved 

 on one of its longer sides, in order to give a firm hold to the line. Such stones 

 weigh, according to the current in which they are used, from twenty-five to fifty 

 pounds. 



For the following information, bearing on the employment of anchor-stones 

 in Virginia, I am indebted to Professor Otis T. Mason : 



" In response to your inquiry concerning the use of anchor-stones by the 

 negroes of Virginia, I would state that I have many a time gone out in a dug- 

 out canoe with negroes or ' poor whites ' to catch the white cat-fish found only in 

 the running water of the middle bed, or channel, of the streams. The fisher- 



