138 CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



ments found at greater or less depth in the gravel beds 

 of various parts of the world ; such as those discovered 

 by Dr. Abbott in the gravel of the Delaware valley at 

 Trenton, N. J., of which figs. 1 and 2 are representations. 



Implements such as these were made readily from any 

 kind of stone which fractures with a sharp edge, and 

 they were formed by striking off pieces with another 

 stone which served as a hammer. In each locality the 

 stones which have this essential character soon became 

 known and hence we find that chipped implements made 

 of the several varieties of slate, jasper and quartz are 

 abundant in this vicinity, while in other parts of America 

 flint or chert, obsidian, chalcedony and other kinds of 

 stones were used. 



A variety of argillite was the material in common use 

 among the people inhabiting the valley of the Delaware 

 at a time so remote that we are unable, as yet, to express 

 it in years. While we cannot affirm that the rudely- 

 made implements found in the Trenton gravel were fast- 

 ened to handles, it is probable that they were, as we know 

 that similar implements are furnished with handles by 

 savages probably as low in the scale of humanity as were 

 the ancient men of the glacial epoch. Figures 1 and 2 

 represent two of the argillite implements from the Trenton 

 gravel. 



Fig. 3 is an illustration of a rude stone implement pro- 

 vided with a handle, from Tasmania. The handle is sim- 

 ply a tough twig which has been cut or scraped flat on 

 one side and then bent over the stone ; the flat surfaces of 

 the twig coming together below the stone are secured in 

 place by a string and form a rounded handle. A similar 

 method may have been followed in hafting the rude imple- 

 ments found in the gravel. 



Another primitive form of cutting implement is shown 



