110 STONE IMPLEMENTS (etii. axn. 15 



away for tlie jmrpose, or perhaps often from fragments of vessels 

 broken in use. 



About the (]uarries and in the ([uarry debris are specimens exliibit- 

 iug every stage of the vessel shaping work; irregular fragments and 

 well rounded masses just as cut from the quarry, but usually showing 

 some defect of texture or shape, explaining their desertion or rejection; 

 other pieces partly shaped before the defects became apparent; and 

 very many specimens broken by the blows of the shaping tools, as 

 illustrated in plate Lxxvii; so that every step of tlie work and every 

 phase of the shaping operations are fully represented. The rongh- 

 dressed shapes vary a good deal with tlie different quarries, though on 

 the whole there is decided uiiifornnty in the work as carried on through- 

 out the soapstone belt. Final forms, as shown by village-site remains, 

 are limited to shallow traj-s or dishes, trough-like forms, and deej) 

 basins. Xowhere in eastern United States were pots made of the deep 

 globidar form so common in California. 



A prevailing shape in the PotomacChesapeake region is an oblong 

 basin with ear-like projections or handles at the ends. The largest 

 si3ecimens are about i'o inches in length. The width is often hardly more 

 than half the length, and the depth averages perhaps one-half the 

 width. This form may have been suggested by wooden dishes or mor- 

 tars of like shape, examples of which are still in use among some of 

 the Algonquiau tribes. Other forms approach more nearly a circular 

 outline, as viewed from above, and these usually have greater depth. 

 In cases the outline is somewhat rectangular. Eoughed-out cups of 

 small size are sometimes found. 



The handles of steatite vessels diff'er much in size and shape as well as 

 in jjosition. Some are placed near the margin or i-im, but others, where 

 the vessels are deep, occur low on the protile. The accomjianying illus- 

 trations (plates Lxxviii, lxxix, and lxxx) convey accurate notions 

 of many details. 



The form development of a vessel of ordinary character is illustrated 

 in plate lxxviii. The ovoid nucleus as cut out of the quarry appears 

 in rt, the handles being only slightly suggested. Excavation of the 

 bowls was begun by a series of pick strokes outlining the basin, as seen 

 in b, a core-like elevation reraaiinng in the center until removed by con- 

 tinued cutting, as suggested in c and (/. The form of the roughed-out 

 vessel as developed in the quarries is quite fairly indicated in e. In 

 some cases the excavation began with a pit in the center and was car- 

 ried outward by successive strokes toward the rim ; and iu very many 

 cases the work was unsystematic and crude, as is well shown in plate 

 LXXIX. Iti specimens found on the surface of the ground the tool marks 

 are much obscured by weathering, but in those from a depth they are 

 as fresh as if made but yesterday. The cutting implement was iu some 

 cases pointed or spike like, but generally had a chisel-like, though 

 rounded, cutting edge half an inch or more in width, leaving imjjres- 

 sions such as are shown in jilate Lxxix, which illustrates two somewhat 



