144 PBEFOEATED STOKES 



precludes the idea of its having been intended as a digging-stick, though 

 its pointed end would allow of its being so used. Mr. Evans* mentions 

 similar weapons from "the southern part of New Guinea and in Torres 

 Straits" as "sharp-rimmed perforated disks of stone, mounted on shafts 

 so as to present an edge all round." In referring to the weapons of the 

 Tahitians, Sir John Lubbockf states that they had "pikes headed with 

 stone," which perhaps would imply a similar weapon to that above 

 described. Mr. Stevens also states} that "similar drilled stones § are used 

 for arming clubs by certain savages, and one, fixed to the end of a stick, 

 from the Solomon Islands, is in the Christy Museum. Mr. Robert Day, 

 jr., of Cork, possesses another of these stone-headed clubs from San. 

 Cristoval." 



While the proofs of these pages were in my hands I had the good for- 

 tune to receive from Mr. Appleton Sturgis, of New York, a club-like pike, 

 of the character of those mentioned by the authors quoted in the preceding 

 paragraph, and as the stone with which this weapon is armed so closely 

 resembles many of the hard, circular, perforated stones from California, the 

 weapon is of great importance in suggesting a very likely use of stones of 

 this character wherever found. Mr. Sturgis informs me that this weapon 

 was received with eight others, now in the American Museum, from the 

 Island of New Britain, and that the others vary from this simply in the 

 length of the staffs and the size of the stones, the latter being in a few 

 instances from half to three-quarters of an inch greater diameter, and the 

 longest staff is about five feet in length. The one before me (Peabody 

 Museum, No. 20,000) has a staff of hard wood, which is four feet four 

 inches in length, the largest end of which measures two inches across the 

 top, but this size is gradually reduced to one-half of that diameter three 

 inches down the staff, at which point the perforated stone is firmly fixed by 

 means of a very tenaceous gum. The staff below the stone is of a uniform 

 diameter of 1 inch, with the exception of the last ten inches of its length, 

 which form the long sharp point of the weapon. The stone is hard, and 



* Ancient Stone Implements, p. 193. t Prehistoric Times, p. 477. t Flint Chips, p. 95. 



§ Mr. Stevens is here writing of the larger drilled stones, which have generally heen called net 

 sinkers, and calling attention to the necessity of caution in classing all the ancient specimens as such. 



