DISTRIBUTION OF PLUMMETS. 



Ill 



FlQ. 112.- 



^Vi 



According to Abbott, one of these relics was found at Salem, in a 

 mortar. ' Stevens says, quoting from Schoolcraft, that the Pennacook 

 ludiaus used sinkers very much like a plummet in shape. ^ In Florida 

 very rough plummets with deep grooves are found in the shell mounds, 

 which were no doubt used as sinkers. The Indians of 

 southern California use them as medicine stones to 

 bring rain; the Eskimo use similar stones as sinkers, 

 but have them perforated at the end. The larger ob- 

 jects of this form may have been used as pestles.^ They 

 might be made very efficient in twisting thread, as they 

 revolve for a considerable time when set in motion. 

 The general form is ovoid, sometimes quite slender, 

 sometimes almost round; the ends 

 may be either blunt or pointed. 

 They may Lie grooved near the mid- 

 dle or near either the larger or 

 smaller end. Some have two grooves, 

 some are only partially grooved, 

 while others have the groove ex- 

 tending lengthwise. There are forms 

 that differ somewhat fi-om this de 

 scnptiou, but such are rare. 

 ^i^^^ Many small and otherwise un- 



-piummet, grooved worked watcrwom pebbles and 

 near one end. pieccs of stcatitc pots from South- 



eastern Tennessee and from Montgomery county, North 

 Carolina, have grooves near the middle or near one end; 

 they were probably applied to some of the 

 uses for which x)lummets were intended. 



The plummets in the Bureau collection 

 may be grouped as follows : 



A. Grooved near smaller end. The types 

 are illustrated in figure 112 (sandy lime- 

 stone, from a mound in Catahoula parish, 

 Louisiana), and figure 113 (hematite, double 

 grooved, witli notches cut in various places, 

 from a mound in Kanawha valley, West 



^1 



Virginia). Other specimens are, one from 



Fio. 111.— Spnd. 



Arkansas county, Arkansas, of sandstone, 

 and one each from Brown and Randolph counties, Illinois, 

 both of hematite. 

 B. Grooved near larger end. A good example, of hematit, 



is from Kanawha valley, West Virginia, with a second groove partially 



around the middle. 



Fig 113.— Plum 

 met. double 

 grooved. 



I Primitive Industry, p. 229. 



^Flint Cllips, p 581. 



^Henshaw in Aiiier. Jour. Arch., vol. I. pp. 105-114. 



