24 CERTAIN SAND MOUNDS OF 



mound at a depth of 5' 5 feet from the surface. The notches were uneven in num- 

 ber, eight on one side and ten on the other, as shown in the figure (Fig. 11). As 

 a rule, we have found the number of these tally marks to agree on either side of 

 ceremonial implements. 



Unlike so many of our aboriginal relics this implement is of a type unknown 

 in Europe. 1 It is of comparative rarity, though of wide distribution, in the United 

 States. Mr. A. E. Douglass has one from Kentucky with notches, three on each 

 side of the blade which is slightly convex on the sides. It is highly polished. Its 

 length is 1575 inches. 2 



We are indebted to Thomas Wilson, Esq. for a report of two of these imple- 

 ments, one of blue trap rock highly polished, found near Columbia, South Carolina ; 

 the other from Kentucky. The collection in the Smithsonian Institution is largely 

 comprised of casts, and Dr. Rau, in his " Archaeological Collection of the United 

 States Museum," (page 25) takes his figure from a cast. 



Colonel C. C. Jones, (Plate XVII, fig. 2, 3 ) figures the spade-shaped implement 

 found by Dr. Joseph Jones in Tennessee. Colonel Jones believes it to have been 

 an agricultural tool. 



Dr. Joseph Jones 4 figures the same implement. It is of highly polished green- 

 stone, 18 inches in length, and came from Old Town, Tennessee. He reports 

 others from various parts of the Cumberland Valley. " Several conjectures," he 

 says, " have been formed as to the use of these singular implements. Some have 

 supposed them to have been used in agriculture, the flat head being employed as a 

 spade, and the round handle for making small holes in the earth for the deposit of 

 grains of Indian corn ; others believe that they were used to strip the bark 

 from trees; others again, that they were used in dressing hides, in excavating 

 caves, or in felling trees after the wood had been charred by fire. It is 

 possible that they may have been used for all these purposes, and also as war-like 

 weapons, since it would be easy to fracture or to cleave the human skull with a 

 single blow from one of these stone implements." 



Mr. Thruston 5 reports a number of these implements from various parts of 

 Tennessee, and rightly, we think, classes them as ceremonial. We consider them 

 of too infrequent occurrence to suggest their employment for any practical use. 

 We have been able to learn of none showing breakage or signs of use, and some 

 reported are too small in size to render them useful as weapons. Moreover, we 

 think the tally marks on certain specimens connect them with the ceremonial class. 

 The two from Mt. Royal, the larger of which we figure, are the first reported from 

 Florida. 



Miscellaneous Objects of Stone. — At various depths, carefully noted on the speci- 

 mens but not of material interest here, were found a " sinker " wrought from a 



1,1 Prehistoric America," page 170, et seq. 



2 Mr. A. E. Douglass in private letter. 



s Op- cit., page 302. 



4 Op. cit, page 87. 



5 " Antiquities of Tennessee," page 295, et seq., fig. 208 and Plate XV. 



