MURDOCH. ] STONE ADZES. 167 
it difficult to work. Probably the oldest of these adzes is No. 56675 
[69], Fig. 130, which has been selected as the type of the earliest form 
we have represented in the collection. This is of dark olive green, 
almost black, jade, 7-2 inches long, 2-8 wide, and 1:3 thick, and smoothly 
ground on the broader faces. The cutting edge is much broken from 
longuse. One broad face is pretty smoothly ground, but left rough at the 
buttend. The other is rather flatter, but more than half of it is irregu- 
larly concave, the natural inequalities being hardly touched by grinding. 
Like the other dark-colored jade tools, this specimen is very much 
lighter on a freshly fractured surface. The dark color is believed to be 
due to long contact with greasy substances. 
Fic. 130.—Adz-head of jade. FG. 131.—Adz-head of jade. 
No. 89662 [900], from Nuwitk, is an exceedingly rough adz of similar 
shape, but so slightly ground that it is probably one that was laid aside 
unfinished. From the battered appearace of the ends it seems to have 
been used for a hammer. It is of the same dark jade as the preceding. 
No. 89689 [792], from Utkiavwin, is of rather light olive, opaque jade 
and a trifle better finished than the type, while No. 89661 [1155], Fig. 
131, also from Utkiavwin, is a still better piece of workmanship, the 
curve of the faces to the cutting edge being very graceful. The inter- 
esting point about this specimen is that a straight piece has been cut 
off from one side by sawing down smoothly from each face almost to the 
middle and breaking the piece off. We were informed that this was done 
to procure rods of jade for making knife sharpeners. We were informed 
that these stones were cut in the same way as marble and freestone are 
eut with us, namely, by sawing with a flat blade of iron and sand and 
water. A thin lamina of hard bone was probably used before the intro- 
duction of iron. Possibly a reindeer scapula, cut like the one made 
