ABORIGINAL CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS OF NEW YORK 73 



west of Onondaga lake. The base is gone, but this example is given 

 because of its distinctly serrate character. Another broken specimen, 

 of bluish flint, now one and one half inches long, is as serrate, and 

 comes from the same vicinity. Good examples should occur in the 

 southwestern part of New York, but none have yet been reported. 



FLINT HAMMERS 



Flint hammers have thus far been more frequently observed in the 

 lower Mohawk valley than elsewhere. They are rude nodules of 

 flint, showing traces of hammering, and sometimes of chipping, but 

 were naturally used but little in a land where field stones are abundant. 

 They differ much from the so-called hammer-stones. Fig. 202 shows 

 one from Spraker's basin, which is two and one quarter inches 

 across, and just a third as thick, one broad surface being quite flat. 

 Fig. 203 is more characteristic, and is from the Seneca river. This 

 is one and seven eighths inches long, and an inch thick. Fig. 204 is 

 a smaller one, not far from one and one half inches each way. 

 Smaller ones yet appear. A more remarkable one comes from Onon- 

 daga lake, which is two and one eighth inches long. Its peculiar 

 feature is the rough grinding in two contiguous planes at one end. 

 Flint is rarely ground here, but when this has been done the result 

 is commonly a polish. A few chipped hammers of greenstone present 

 nothing worthy- of remark, except a slight expansion at one end. 

 They are from three to four inches long. The ordinary hammer- 

 stones, and the common field stones perhaps restricted the use of 

 these ruder implements. The faceted and picked balls of stone, 

 possibly used in war clubs, properly belong in another class. 



/ MISCELLANEOUS , 



There are many odd flint forms of Uncertain character. Fig. 205 

 represents one of these, being a fragment of some article unknown. 

 It may be the base of a knife, but is strongly suggestive of the fine 

 stone sceptres found of late in Illinois and Tennessee. In that case 

 this would have been the upper end instead of the base. It is of thin, 

 light drab flint, neatly worked, and is yet over three inches long. It 

 is broken where a line of fossils crossed the stone. 



