IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 115 



inches long, and weighs more than 251bs. The larger 

 end of it has been much bruised and broken, and it 

 was evidently a miner's sledge-hammer. Grooved 

 stones of this kind occur on pre-historic sites in 

 Europe, though they have sometimes been regarded 

 as plummets or sling-stones. In America similarly- 

 grooved pebbles are often found in circumstances 

 which lead to the belief that they have been sinkers 

 for nets. These are, however, usually of stone too 

 soft to have been used for hammers, and have no 

 marks of use on the ends. The ordinary sinker for 

 lines and nets is, however, on both sides of the Atlantic 

 a pear-shaped or drop-shaped stone, with a groove for 

 the line at the sharp end. 



Sling-stones, properly so called, we probably have 

 not in North America ; but there are two kinds of 

 stones used as weapons, and which resemble what 

 have been regarded as sling-stones in Europe. The 

 first is grooved, and fastened to a cord the other end 

 of which is attached to the right arm. This stone, 

 Carver tells us, was used as a weapon with deadly 

 effect by certain tribes west of the Mississippi. The 

 other was a sort of slung-shot. As described by 

 Lewis and Clarke, and as appears from specimens in 

 collections, it is a pear-shaped stone, sheathed in 

 leather or hide, and attached by a thong two inches 

 long to a stout handle, with a second thong by which 

 it can be fastened to the wrist. Champlain found a 

 similar weapon in use among the nations of Western 

 Canada, and stones of this kind are used by the South 



