IO NEW- YORK STATE MUSEUM 



things. This difference is so great of itself as almost to prove them 

 a different race, and this appears in other ways. In a broad way 

 the Algonquin family might be included in this view. 



Occasionally location has importance in considering probable use. 

 Two grooved boulders in position may materially affect our opinion 

 of their use and origin. The abundance of stone plummets in cer- 

 tain places indicates a local and special purpose. Two forms of 

 polished slate knives may have great ethnological importance, and 

 the almost utter absence of other things points out early differences 

 otherwise unknown. More light still may result from farther re- 

 search and clearer judgment, specially as comparative study goes on. 



There is now little reason to doubt that the use of polished stone 

 in America is nearly or quite as old as that of chipped articles, speci- 

 mens of the former occurring geologically as early as the latter, if 

 the tales of scientists are true. Indeed the idea of sharpening by 

 rubbing or grinding would be quite as primitive and natural as any 

 other, and it would soon be a question of the best use of material. 

 Stones with a good cleavage would be chipped; those of a different 

 character, ground. Bone or horn are often so well adapted for use 

 naturally or by accident, that the slight grinding required would be 

 at once suggested. Divesting ourselves of all prejudice, it would 

 seem that the two arts would go hand in hand, as was certainly the 

 case in New York. In this State the older polished stone articles 

 are not only the finest, but are often far older than those of flint. 



There was a period of decadence in polished stone work in New 

 York before the coming of the white man. Shell, bone and horn 

 had taken the place of some things, and clay of others. The stone 

 pipe had largely disappeared and the polished stone axe or celt was 

 almost the only fine article surviving in pristine beauty. These 

 were soon to pass away, but steel tools occasioned a revival of orna- 

 mental stone work. Pipes of this material were made again; pipe- 

 stone came east through the wars of the Iroquois, and was deli- 

 cately wrought and drilled in great quantities, often by the white 

 man's taste and skill; always with his tools. Small shell beads were 

 made and distributed in prodigious numbers through the same 

 means, but the flint arrow and stone axe utterly disappeared. The 



