[' 221 ] 



X. 



l^OTE O'N SOME SHELL IMPLEMEJ^TS EEOM BARBADOS. 

 By C. G. TOUIs'G. 



[Eead January 16, 1899.] 



The only stones fennel in Barbados are a coralline limestone and a 

 sandstone. 



The first is very soft, fnll of air-spaces, and composed of fossils, 

 mostly corals, cemented together. It is friable and cannot stand a 

 blow. The sandstone is also easily broken. Neither of these stones 

 would be of any use for conversion into implements. 



In old days the island of Barbados vras thickly inhabited by Caribs. 

 It is fertile, the soil being a loose garden mould, and easily worked. 

 A contrast to the tough, blue clay soil of the north coast of South 

 America, washed by the muddy waters from the Amazon. I have 

 been told by present residents in Barbados that some tliirty or forty 

 years ago shell implements, such as are now presented to the Academy, 

 were very plentiful, being found in the ground from time to time in 

 the course of cultivation. I^ow they are not easily obtained. On 

 examination it is easy to detect their origin ; in some cases part of the 

 twist in the shell still remains at the upper end. The inequalities 

 on the chipped side were smoothed down to meet the natural free 

 margin of the shell, now the cutting edge of the implement. There 

 are many large shells found in the deep water outside the reef, fished 

 up by divers, which are capable of being converted into implements, 

 but comparing some specimens with these it seems that the " Conch 

 shell" (Stromhus gigas) is chiefly used. 



On the low cliffs near the sea I have frequently come across 

 heaps of fragments of these shells, but never found any formal im- 

 plements among them. 



One shell was capable of being converted into one large imple- 

 ment and many small ones, the small ones requiring much more 

 rubbing than the larger ones to bring them into shape. 



In a private collection I saw one that had a very good attempt at 

 ornamentation, the upper end being cut into a rope pattern, as if the 



