DESCRIPTIONS OF THE CALIEOBJSTIA STONES. 163 



tened portion or base, where it is § of an inch in diameter, and carried 

 through the stone, gradually decreasing in size to § of an inch at the opposite 

 end. The size and weight of this stone are against its having been used as 

 an ordinary spindle-whorl, though it would be none too large for use as a 

 whorl for a bow-drill. The hole is too small to allow of the supposition that 

 it was a weight to a digging-stick, and the same objection would apply 

 to its having been mounted on a handle as a club We seem, therefore, 

 reduced to regard this either as a net-sinker, a whorl to some large fire- 

 drill or boring implement, or as a club-head which was fastened to a handle 

 by means of a withe or a strip of hide. 



Of the conical forms there are several modifications. One (P. M. 13422), 

 which is of impure steatite, was found in " Pots Valley," the locality on the 

 island of Santa Catalina where pots and other articles of steatite were 

 extensively manufactured. This specimen is 1-J inches high and .3 inches 

 in diameter, and while it might be classed with the group that I have called 

 flattened or ring-like, as its transverse diameter is twice its height, yet it is so 

 decidedly conical in shape that it seems most appropriate to mention it in 

 connection with the other more or less conical forms. The concentric stria?, 

 formed by the boring implement, are very distinctly seen on the sides of 

 the hole, which was started by pecking from both sides of the stone and 

 afterward bored, making a perforation which is only J an inch in diameter 

 in the centre, while it widens to about twice the size at each face of the stone. 

 From this brief description it will be seen that this stone, with its half- 

 inch perforation, so far as can be determined from known uses of similar 

 stones, would have to be classed as a club-stone, a whorl, or a sinker, and 

 to me it seems best adapted for use as a club-head fastened by thongs to a 

 handle.* 



Of the globular-conoid form, there are two specimens from the island 

 of Santa Cruz, which are of nearly equal size, and both have large holes. 

 They are probably made of an impure and rather hard steatite. 



Figs. 44, 44a, and 45 represent one of these specimens of actual size 



* Since this chapter was written I have received the account of Mr. Bower's explorations on the 

 island of Santa Eosa, Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1877. Mr. Bowers there states that he 

 found a "conical disk, which was probably used in spinning." From the context I judge that this 

 "conical disk" is of stone, and probably similar to the one I have described above. 



