148 ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY IN ALASKA [eth. ann. 48 



" The double-bitted, multiple-grooved stone ax has two areas of dis- 

 tribution in North America. One of these is the country of the 

 northeastern woodlands Indians, extending as far south as the Central 

 Atlantic States. The other area of distribution is the extreme north- 

 west, or the mainland of Alaska. 



" In the collection brought to the National Museum from Alaska by 

 Doctor Hrdlicka are eight grooved stone implements. All but one 

 of these have cutting edges for use as axes or adzes. The exception, 

 Cat. No. 332809, U.S.N.M., is a grooved spherical stone maul or 

 club 9.5 centimeters (3.7 inches) long and 7.5 centimeters (2.9 

 inches) in sectional diameter. This grooved object was found near 

 Tanana on the beach of the Yukon River. Like the grooved stone 

 axes in Doctor Hrdlicka's collection, the groove is incomplete. A 

 flattened space of approximately 2 centimeters is left ungrooved for 

 the hafting of a flat surfaced handle end with binding, which is 

 passed around the transverse groove and then through a hole in the 

 wooden handle. 



" Three single-grooved, double-bitted stone axes were collected from 

 various points on the Yukon River. These are of interest because 

 of their similar grooving and double cutting edges. Each is identical 

 in form, each has been shaped by pecking, except in the sector near 

 the cutting edges where they have been sharpened and polished by 

 grinding. Between the raised borders of the centrally pecked groove 

 and the cutting edges the surface has been shaped to a slight con- 

 cavity by pecking. In Cat. No. 332805, U.S.N.M., this concavity 

 is replaced by a well-defined convex bevel. The pecked groove is 

 at right angles to the longitudinal axis and is comparatively shallow 

 but has a wide diameter of 2 centimeters or more. The material is 

 uniformly of basalt. The axes are 20 centimeters or more long, while 

 the sectional diameter varies from 6 to 10 centimeters according to 

 whether the ax is flattened or oval in section. 



" Grooved, double-bitted stone axes similar to those collected by 

 Doctor Hrdlicka from the Middle Yukon region have since become 

 known also from stations farther south in Alaska. One was plowed 

 up in a field near Matanuska and is now in the chamber of commerce 

 exhibit at Anchorage, while another was collected in 1927 by the writ- 

 er from near Chitna, Alaska. This Alaskan type of grooved ax is 

 practically identical with that of the central Atlantic seaboard 

 States, as figured by Walter Hough in the Proceedings of the United 

 States National Museum, volume 60, article 9, page 14. 



"Another grooved type of stone object brought to the National 

 Museum by Doctor Hrdlicka is a stone war club of unusual type. 

 It was found on the Yukon River beach iy 2 miles below the Mis- 



