130 ISLAND CULTl'RE AREA OF AMERICA [eth. ANN. 34 



to such a degree of perfection that it would be difficult to improve 

 on them, either in design or workmanship. 



" It is necessary to state the fact which permitted John Lubbock 

 to class the aboriginal inhabitants of the American islands among the 

 neolithic peoples; it is because the stone is always polished. There 

 is not a single relic formed solely by being chipped, for those rare 

 pieces (axes or chisels) which present such an appearance also have 

 the surface very well polished. Besides, these volcanic stones can not 

 be worked by chipping, like flint, quartz, or obsidian. 



" We come across axes so small that we ask ourselves if they were 

 not used by pygmies, and these alongside of others so large and heavy 

 that we dream of Titans, and no longer of men like ourselves. 



" In addition to all these relics, which I have gathered from the 

 ground in all parts of the colony, both on the seashoi-e and in the 

 interior, and at altitudes of from 200 to 900 meters, enormous stones 

 covered with strange designs are found, especially in a single quarter 

 of Guadeloupe proper. The dimensions of these stones vary con- 

 siderably. In some the drawings are so high up that it is difficult to 

 reach them ; in others they are near the ground or buried under the 

 surface. They are scattered w^ithout order about the country and in 

 the beds of the rivers. At St. Vincent also, the last refuge of the 

 Caribs, stones with inscriptions on them are found in the beds of 

 rivers. 



" It is now very difficult to find wrought stones in the ground. 

 Here and there the plow or the hoe turns up some occasional frag- 

 ments. These stones lie in fact in the arable layer or stratum, and 

 this has been so well worked that everything it contained has been 

 brought to light. New clearings alone would favor the collector. 

 In the deep strata would other things belonging to an earlier race 

 be found? In the case of Grande Terre it would be impossible, for 

 as soon as we have passed the vegetable mold we reach calcareous 

 rocks, Madreporic formations containing numerous fossil shells and 

 dogfish, which preclude all idea of the presence of man. It appears 

 to me more probable in the case of Guadeloupe, which is of more 

 ancient formation, and which must at all times have offered more 

 resources to man. 



" However large may be the number and variety of the types 

 which I possess, I still consider my work incomplete. It constitutes 

 only the prolegomena of what I would wish to accomplish. 



" In the presence of this collection one is led to ask if these wrought 

 stones are the work of the Tguirk or of the Caribs, or if they would 

 not belong to these two races. We are in almost complete darkness 

 on this point. It is necessary to throw some light on the subject. 

 This could be done only by visiting all the Lesser Antilles, which 

 were already occupied by the Caribs on the arrival of Columbas; 



