56 



CUPPED STONES. 



enings, widenings, and turns, 

 and such stones cannot have 

 been intended for use in smooth- 

 ening a straight stick. The 

 greater number of forms of this 

 kind were probably used in 

 straightening ci'ooked arrow- 

 shafts, as has been suggested in 

 a recent paper by Dr. Thomas 

 Wilson. Some specimens which 

 seem well adapted for such a 

 purpose, are wider than the rest 

 and have on one side two or 

 three parallel grooves, which 

 terminate before coming to the 

 end of the stone (Fig. 25). In 

 the straightening process the 

 crooked part of the shafts are 

 supposed to have been pressed 

 into these grooves. The stone 

 was probably heated for the 

 purpose of temporarily soft- 

 ening the wood. Such a proce- 

 dure would account for the fact that nearly all the 

 stones of this kind were broken across the middle. 



Fig. 26. Arrow-smoothener, made 

 from sandstone. Reduced to ^i of 

 the natural size. 



CUPPED STONES. 



Some pieces of sandstone of irregular shape had cup- 

 like cavities on their flat sides. These cups were about 

 an inch or an inch and a half in diameter and had a 



