154 



all were accumulated at the above rate, but little over a ccn- 

 turj would have been sufficient for all of them. The terms 

 on which this calculation is based, admit of many possible and 

 probable variations, — yet I think that no reasonable man could 

 be brought to believe that these deposits were more than two 

 centuries in forming. I. have excellent traditional authority, 

 that additions to these icere made by the aborigines within 

 the last one hundred and twenty-five years. By this, I inler 

 that four centuries ago, none of them were in existence. But 

 granting this, it does not necessarily follow, that Indians had 

 not previously formed settlements in what is now our New- 

 England States. They may not have come to our sea shores 

 until after other and inland encampments ; and the township of 

 Marblehead may have thus been one of the last localities se- 

 lected by them. It seems to me, however, more probable that 

 their roving habits made them early acquainted with our coasts, 

 while their narrow resources led them also to depend upon 

 mollusks for a large portion of their subsistence and usual food. 

 Add to this, the number of Indian tribes found here by the 

 early foreign settlers and abundant evidence of a much denser 

 population shortly anterior to their arrival, would seem to 

 indicate that Naumkeag was early appreciated as a '-good 

 fishing place." These surmises may seem to many wholly 

 Avorthless, and it is only from the utter silence of history 

 respecting the time that I am led to pen them. 



When first arranging my collection I was inclined, in ac- 

 cordance with general testimony, to classify all the stone points 

 as either spear heads or arrow heads, but the predominance of 

 the larger points, which could not by any possibility have been 

 shot from a bow, was so great, as to render it highly improba- 

 ble that so large a proportion could have been used only for 

 spear heads. An examination of the collection in the antiqua- 

 rian rooms at Worcester, removed the difficulty, indicating that 

 a large portion of them were tomahawk points. These speci- 

 mens show the stone point inserted in a knob at the end 

 of a club of wood. Various modifications of this wea- 

 pon will be found in some of our late school books — among 

 others in Miss Emma Wizard's school history, in the engrav- 

 ing representing the condemnation of Capt. John Smith. 



It may not be uninteresting to present a few general infer- 

 ences, drawn from a careful examination of my collection 

 (embracing about 300 specimens of all kinds of relics) and 

 of localities from which they were obtained. 



1st. It will be observed that the difference between the 



