HOLMES] GEOLOGY AND ART 141 



and quartzite, the native flakahle stones, there are countless rejects of 

 manufacture of all grades, as described in the foregoing pages. 



It may be said of quartzite and quartz that a portion of these mate- 

 rials, perhaps a large portion, especially of the latter, was gathered 

 from the highland beyond the tidewater limit, and no one can say from 

 the examination of ordinary finished implements of these materials 

 whether or nt>t they were made from a native bowlder or pebble or from 

 a foreign mass or flake; yet the presence of countless numbers of the 

 rejects of manufacture from bowldei-s and pebbles of these materials 

 within the tidewater area, and the rarity, so far as I have been able to 

 discover, of refuse of manufacture in the highland, seem to make the 

 true conditions clear. 



Cut, pecked, ground, and polished implements of usual types are 

 common in this region. Steatite, used in making pots, pipes, sinkers, 

 ceremonial stones, and ornaments, was quarried in hundreds of places 

 along the eastern border of the highland. The unfinished objects are 

 found on and about the quarry sites and on dwelling sites near by. 

 The finished utensils and implements are scattered far and wide over 

 the tidewater province, but grow less plentiful as we approach the 

 Atlantic coast. The picks and chisels used in working the soapstone 

 are confined to the quarries and to shop and dwelling sites in the 

 vicinity. Scores of these objects have been gathered from the Chain 

 bridge sites, within an hour's walk of numerous (juarries of the stone 

 they were used in shaping. 



Grooved axes and celts were made for the most part of tough bowl- 

 ders of volcanic and rarely of granitic rocks obtained from the stream 

 beds or about the margins of the highland. Failures resulting from 

 the manufacture of these implements are frequently found on village- 

 sites along the banks of the larger streams but rarely very far beyond 

 the range of the raw material. The implements themselves are of the 

 widest distribution. 



COMPARATIVE DISTRIBUTION OF IMPLEMENTS 

 DISTRIBUTION liY CLASSES 



The liability of the v^arious stone implements of the tidewater region 

 to transportation is approximately expressed in the partial list given 

 below. Beginning with those least subject to transportation and end- 

 ing with those most subject to it we liave the following tentative order: 



Mortars, generallj' extemporized from large, tiattish or ovoid bowl- 

 ders having at least one concave surface, which was gradually deepened 

 by use or purposely hollowed out, were probably rarely far removed 

 from the site of their first utilization. Many other improvised tools 

 and utensils — mullers, pestles, hammerstones, etc — were equally home 

 stayers, being merely natural shapes picked uj) and adapted to the 

 needs of a place or occasion. 



