No. 2. Charm Stones. 15 



mets (see Fig. B), of which he says : "Which, from 

 the notch cut round its pointed end, may have been 

 used as a plumb-line or as a spindle." In the "Third An- 

 nual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology," by J.W. Pow- 

 ell, director, published in 1884, on pages 509 and 510, 

 are descriptions of implements in a collection from 

 Peru, "neatly made sinkers wrapped in corn husks and 

 sinkers of gray slate, shaped somewhat like a cigar, 

 with one or more grooves partially encircling the end. 

 These were wrapped in corn husks." 



The figure given on page 510 represents the ordin- 

 ary so-called plummets, except that there are two 

 grooves on the smaller end and one on the larger. 

 These grooves only partially encircle the implement 

 and are all on the same side. 



Abbott, in his "Primitive I ndustry," very properly sep- 

 arates the plummets and sinkers, devoting one chapter 

 to each. 



In the chapter on plummets he gave illustrations of 

 several implements found in Illinois, Ohio, New Jer- 

 sey, Massachusetts and Maine. These are nearly iden- 

 tical in general form and outline with those found on 

 the Pacific Coast. He says : "While the general 

 name given to the group is convenient, and in a meas- 

 ure descriptive of their appearance, it has but little ref- 

 erence to their uses. It has been remarked that their 

 principal use as plummets may be questioned, as there 

 are far too many of them found and of too great varia- 

 tion in size to lead us to infer that they were used main- 

 ly for that purpose." 



He remarks of Fig. 216, which he states "is a char- 

 acteristic specimen of the New England plummet of 

 about the maximum size : Whether it should be class- 

 ed as a pestle or not can not be readily determined, 

 but from the fact that unquestionable pestles are by no 

 means infrequent in the same localities, and also for the 

 reason that the larger plummet-shaped implements are 

 of too soft a material and seldom exhibit signs ot use 

 at their rounded end." 



In his chapter on sinkers, he seems to be very un- 



