98 STONE ART. [eth.ann.13 



A number of roughly chipped, somewhat crescent-shaped specimens 

 of argillite, from half a pound to 2 pounds in weight, collected in Mont- 

 gomery county, North Carolina, may have been used as sinkers. 



Perforated Stones. 



Only the larger or rougher perforated stones used as implements are 

 included in this class. 



Several perforated pieces of steatite, some mere rough fragments, 

 others with the edges smooth and dressed to a somewhat symmetri- 

 cal outline, have been collected about Savannah, Georgia. Some of 

 these have been drilled, others gouged through apparently with a 

 slender flint. In the latter group the little projections left by the tool 

 have been worn smooth. The hole may be near one end or about the 

 center. Similar pieces have been found in Forsythe county, Georgia; 

 one of these is worked to an irregular pentagon and smoothly finished. 

 From Haywood county, North Carolina, there are some very rough 

 fragments, apparently just as they were picked up, except for the 

 perforation ; and a number of pieces of perforated pottery are from 

 Montgomery county, North Carolina. 



Perforated stones were used by the southern Indians to drag along 

 the bottoms of streams and frighten tish into their nets and traps.' 

 Four disks i to 5^ inches in diameter, with handles from 13 to 17 inches 

 long, were found in a cave at Los Angeles, California,^ and objects of this 

 character were, according to Schumacher, used by the Santa Barbara 

 Indians as weights for wooden spades.' According to Abbott many 

 perforated stones are found close to rivers and on shores iu such posi- 

 tions as to leave no doubt of their use as sinkers.* Similar stones were 

 used as sinkers by the Scandinavians in comparatively recent times; 

 by the Bechuanas for grinding grasshoppers, spiders, etc., and also as 

 weights for digging-sticks; by some savages in the Pacific islands as 

 clubs; by the Icelanders for breaking up salted fish."^ They were used 

 by the Iroquois as weights for fire drills ; '^ by the Eskimo as clubs, 

 having a rawhide handle secured by a knot.' According to Dale,° 

 Layard,^ Griesbach, '" and Gooch," they were used by natives of 

 southern Africa as root-diggers (to remove earth from the roots), as 

 weapons, and to give weight to digging sticks. They were also used 

 by the Peruvian Indians to be thrown with a stick. Disk- shaped and 



1 Jones; Antiquities of the Sontbern Indians, p. 338. 



* Amer. Naturalist, vol. XX, p. 574. 



^Hayden Surv., Bull. 3, 1877, p. 41 ; also llth Ann Ropt. Peabody Museum, p. 265. 



^Primitive Industry, p. 244. 



I" Stevens; Flint Chips, p. 95. 



*Ibid., p.DG. Morgjin; League of the Iroquois, p. 381. 



'Stevens; Flint Cliips, p. 499. 



• Dale, L., in Journal of Auth. Inat. of Great Br. and Ireland . vol. I, p 347. 

 ^Layard, E. L., iu ibid., appendix, c. 



"Griesbach, C. L., m ibid., p. cliv. 



" W. n. Gooch says the.v were used as club heads by the predecessors of the Bushmen, who now use 

 them as diggers ; ibid., vol. Xl, p. 128. 



