162 PERFORATED STONES. 



nothing improbable in the statement that these stones may have been used as net- 

 sinkers. A net large enough to fish outside the beach on this coast must have taken 

 a long time to make, and may have been the property of the town, or of several indi- 

 viduals, and it seems to me that the same care might have been devoted to the neces- 

 sary stone sinkers that was given to the construction of the net. 



Among these hundred specimens from California are several which, by 

 their battered and fractured surfaces, show that they have received hard 

 usage Others are smooth, and many are even highly polished over a more 

 or less extended surface. Still others are rudely ornamented, either by 

 incised lines similar to the markings on pottery in the early stages of the 

 development of the ceramic art, or by deeply-cut grooves. Of a few there 

 are onhy fragments, and as the fractured portions of these are often as much 

 weathered as the rest of the stone, there can be little doubt that these exam- 

 ples were broken while in use. Most of these broken specimens are halves 

 of stones, which, apparently, have been broken by a pressure exerted in the 

 central perforation, thus causing the stone to split. A few, however, are 

 fractured transversely to the perforation, as if caused by a blow the force 

 of which was exerted upon the outer edge of the stone. In shape and size, 

 and in the character of the perforations, there is great diversity, and 

 although the intermediate forms prevent a strict classification, the specimens 

 now before me can be approximately arranged in several groups by their 

 shape, such as conical, globular, and flattened. 



The first to be described is from the island of Santa Catalina (P. M. 

 13420). This is made from a piece of chlorite-schist, which has been ham- 

 mered and ground into a shape unlike any of the other specimens. It has 

 a flattened base and a somewhat conical top above its five flattened sides. 

 The surface of the stone has been rubbed very smooth, and considerable 

 labor must have been expended in manufacturing this implement, the use 

 of which is problematical. It is 4 inches in diameter by 2 J in height, and 

 weighs forty-five ounces. The hole, which is through the centre, was bored 

 probably by a stone drill, and this was most likely mounted so as to give 

 a full revolution, as the well-defined and continuous circular lines made 

 by the drill can be seen. That the hole was made entirely by the drill is 

 shown by the circular striae coming out flush with the surface of the stone 

 at each end of the hole. The boring of the hole was started from the flat- 



