PESTLES MADE OF STONE. 



91 



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may be questioned. At least such are now quite rarely met with in com- 

 parison with the vast numbers of perfectly plain examples that have been 

 Fig. 30. found in our fields. Referring to this ornamentation of 

 pestles, we find it stated in the American Naturalist,* how- 

 ever, in commenting on a specimen of pestle, with a wolf's 

 head carved upon it, from Vermont, that " in the collection 

 of the New York State Museum, at Albany, there is a long 

 pestle of identical pattern and same rough carving as the 

 one described from the Burlington Museum. These are the 

 only ones that have come under my observation having the 

 Fig. 3i. handles carved to represent animals, 



though most of the longer implements of 

 this character have a knob at the handle 

 as if for the purpose of suspension." 



These knobs or collars at one 

 end cannot be considered as constant 

 features of pestles, as found in the 

 whole extent of the Atlantic coast 

 States. The writer has, as yet, never 

 met with a specimen thus finished, 

 in New Jersey, out of probably two 

 hundred examples of this form of im- 

 plement, though there are several examples in the Peabod} T Museum, from 

 various localities in New England, that have such finished heads. It must 

 also be mentioned, with reference to these domestic implements, that in the 

 series of California specimens there are many with similar rings or knobs 

 which are but 3 or 4 inches in length. In such cases this character may 

 be rather for ornament than use, especially as these diminutive specimens 

 may have been toys, and not designed for practical work. Finally, it may 

 be well to call attention to the marked similarity between these small 

 collared and knobbed examples and many of the so-called plummets or 

 fisl ling-line sinkers. 



These pestles of all sizes have been obtained by all collectors on the 



"American Naturalist, Vol. V, ]>. 12. (Foot-note by F. W, P.) 



