RAU] NORTH AMERICAN NUT-STONES. 45 



tered. Particularly do the soapstones indicate the impressions left by the 

 convex surfaces of the harder nuts. Upon some of them the depressions seem 

 to have been caused simply by repeatedly cracking the nuts upon the same 

 spot, so that in time a concavity was produced corresponding to the half of 

 the spherical or spheroidal nut. Such is the most natural explanation we 

 can offer with regard to the use of these stones."* 



It should be added that Colonel Jones found in some instances the 

 sites where he collected the stones even now overshadowed by hickory and 

 walnut-trees. I had frequent occasion to examine the specimens of this 

 class brought together by him, and I never doubted for a moment the cor- 

 rectness of his view as to the use of these utensils. 



A nut-stone of coarse-grained sandstone, found in the neighborhood of 

 Loudon, Loudon County, Tennessee, and preserved in the National Museum, 

 is represented by Fig. 34. It shows on the figured surface ten irregular con- 

 ical depressions, four of which are considerably larger than the rest. The 

 lower side is provided with eight unequal cavities of the same character. 



The cavities in the North American stone utensils thus far described 

 are produced, as stated, in a manner betokening but little care. I now pass 

 over to another class of objects, which bear in their general appearance 

 much resemblance to the first-mentioned stones (typified by Fig. 32), but 

 which, to judge from the character of their cavities, were designed for a 

 totally different purpose. They are pebbles, or more or less flattish frag- 

 ments, exhibiting either on one of the broad surfaces or on both, a reg- 

 ular cup-shaped cavity from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, 

 which has almost invariably been produced by means of a rotating grind- 

 ing tool. 



Fig. 35 shows the character of a specimen of this class in the National 

 Museum. It is a somewhat flattish dioritic pebble, two inches and a lialf 

 thick, which exhibits on the figured surface a circular cup-shaped cavity, 

 measuring an inch and a half in diameter and nine-sixteenths of an inch in 

 depth. There is a similar cavity on the opposite side of the stone. This 

 specimen was found near Groveport, Franklin County, Ohio. 



* Jones (Charles C.) : Antiquities of the Southern Indians ; pp. 315, 318. 



