VESSELS OF WOOD AND OF SHELLS. 



115 



ladle or dipper, as it may be called, lias been figured and described by Dr. 

 Ran as "a wooden bailing-vessel, with a short handle, fitting in a rectangu- 

 lar liole cut into the vessel."* A careful examination of the specimen leads 

 me to consider this last statement a mistake, and that the handle is part 

 and parcel of the ladle or dipper, and was carved at the same time with 

 the body of the implement from the one piece of wood, and is not an addi- 

 tion thereto. It would be of great interest to know the exact date of the 

 carving of this interesting specimen; for if made previously to the intro- 

 duction of metals, it reflects great credit on the skill of the stone-age work- 

 man, as it is apparent that, although more yielding, wood is probably harder 

 to shape and hollow with flint knives than is stone ; but with whatever tool 

 this vessel has been made, it reflects credit on the skill of the maker. 



This woodeu vessel or ladle measures 5.8 inches in length ; 3.6 inches 

 in width at the top ; and is 2.4 inches high, measured exteriorly. Locality: 

 Santa Cruz Island, California. P. Schumacher. (National Museum.) 



Besides the vessels of stone and this of wood, there occurs a form of 

 dish, or receptacle, which is simply a utilized shell of the abalone (Haliotis). 



Fig. 37 



Dish, made of a shell. 



To render these available as dishes the series of holes or "eyes" in 

 the shell has been carefully closed with asphaltum, and a convenient dish 

 is thereby obtained (Fig. 37). A large shell of this kind, taken from 



* Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, No. 287, p. 88, Fig. 314. 



