168 ISLAND CULTURE AREA OF AMERICA [eth. ANN. 34 



limited in size. The majoiuty of objects now in collections from St. 

 Croix were picked up on the surface, having been brought to light 

 in the process of cultivation of the cane fields; but they are said to be 

 most abundant on land bordering Salt River. 



Artifacts 



The collections, like that obtained by the author, are largely made 

 up of petaloid celts, which vary from almond to spear shaped forms. 

 One or two show shallow, encircling grooves or notches on the sides 

 for hafting and others are like edged tools of triangular form. The 

 form of one stone implement is oblong, flat on one side and rounded 

 on the other, with both ends sharpened to cutting edges. A large 

 number of implements showing recent breakage were also collected. 

 There is a general imiformity in the shape of St. Croix implements, 

 the majority being like those of Porto Rico. No grinding tools ap- 

 pear in the collections made by the author, but a mortar and pestle 

 were seen in a private home. 



Among so many specimens of almond and leaf shaped implements 

 which constitute the majority of objects in collections from St. 

 Croix, it was a genuine surprise to find a stone implement which 

 showed undoubted influence of Porto Rico. This was a fragment 

 of a stone collar, or, to be more accurate, a fragment of the decorated 

 panel, which had evidently been jDut to secondary use as a pestle. 

 The surface was decorated with chevron lines, recalling the orna- 

 mentation of certain collars from Porto Rico. 



The Carib at the beginning of the historic epoch had submerged 

 the Tainan culture of the Virgin Islands and introduced many ob- 

 jects peculiar to them, but the earlier culture of St. Croix was 

 essentially like that of Porto Rico. 



It is certainly significant that while the majority of stone imple- 

 ments from St. Kitts showed marks of having been used for grinders, 

 out of about 500 specimens examined by the author from St. Croix 

 there was not found a single grinding pestle, and but one small mor- 

 tar, too minute to be used for anything but -pigment. Although 

 situated about 100 miles from Porto Rico, no three-pointed stones 

 or collars have yet been found in St. Croix. The collection owned 

 by the governor of the Danish West Indies contains, in addition to 

 many petaloids of almond shape, one or two other forms, as a 

 paddle-like stone that recalls one figured by the author ^' and a long 

 needle stone pointed at both ends. Both of these are like the Porto 

 Rican types. 



PORTO RICO AREA 



The Porto Rico area is separated from the Lesser Antilles by the 

 Anegada Passage. The prehistoric culture which extends from this 



"Aborigines of Porto Rico, Twenty-fifth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pi. xxiii. f. 



