F^I^T II. 



PRIMITIVE LAPIDARIAN SCULPTURES IN AMERICA. 

 NORTH AMERICA. 



Before entering upon the subject indicated in the above heading, I have 

 to allude, for the sake of gradual demonstration, to the so-called hammer- 

 stones, a well-known class of aboriginal relics found in considerable number 

 throughout the United States. They are generally roundish or oval pebbles 

 of a somewhat compressed or flattened form, presenting in their side view 

 the outline of a more or less elongated ellipse. Their only artificial alter- 

 ation consists in two small pits or cavities, so placed to form the centres of 

 the opposite broader sides. In these cavities the workman is supposed to 

 have placed the thumb and middle finger of the right hand, while the fore- 

 finger pressed against the upper circumference of the stone. The material 

 of these implements is usually quartzite, graywacke, or some other kind of 

 compact sandstone. 



As similar stones occur in Europe, speculations upon their use are not 

 wanting, and Professor Nilsson, in particular, has tried to prove they had 

 been employed in chipping tools and weapons of flint.f I will admit that 

 they may have been used, in Europe as well as in America, for fashion- 

 ing rough implements and for flaking ofi" pieces of flint, etc., which were 

 eventually to be brought into definite shapes; but they are by far too 

 clumsy and possess too much roundness on all sides to have been the 

 tools for fabricating arrow-heads and other delicate articles of flint. How 

 would it be possible, for instance, to produce a stemmed dart with long 



t Nilsson : The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia ; translated by Sir John Lubbock ; London, 

 1868, p. 10, etc. 



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