DESCEEPTIOXS OF THE CAXIFOENIA STONES. 171 



result of use is sliowu by the partial obliteration of the groove forming 

 the rim. The stone is 4£ inches in diameter and 3£ inches in thickness. 

 The perforation starts from each face with a diameter of 1| inches, and 

 tapers to the centre, where it is only 1 inch. The sides of the hole are 

 smoothed by the action of the handle. Such a carefully-finished and sym- 

 metrical implement as this would hardly have been made for use as a 

 digging--stick, and it seems eminently proper, notwithstanding its size, to 

 regard it as a club-head. That it was not used as an ordinary hammer is, 

 I think, shown by the sides not being battered. 



Another specimen (P. M. 13358) is from the same island, but was 

 found, with twenty-three others of various sizes and shapes, in a refuse-pile 

 or shellheap. It is of nearly the same size as the one last mentioned, and 

 is made of the same material. It differs from that, however, in not being 

 so symmetrical, and the hole is a quarter of an inch greater in diameter. 

 There is an irregular incised line encircling the hole on top, and this por- 

 tion of the stone is highly polished. Its most interesting peculiarity con- 

 sists in the fact that the perforation is worn smooth on one side onty, while 

 the rest of the hole is nearly as rough as when the stone was first put to 

 its use. This peculiar wear of one portion of the hole would be favorable 

 to the view that this stone was a weight to a digging-stick, as Mr. Schu- 

 macher suggests. 



A third stone (P. M. 13155), of the same material, and originally of 

 about the same size, but having an old fracture, from which cause nearly a 

 quarter of the stone is missing, was found in a grave on the same island 

 with the last two mentioned. Like the others, this is polished around 

 one end of the hole, which is very smooth from use, and is 1J inches in 

 diameter in its smallest part. 



In the preceding descriptions I have noted the fact that two of the 

 large globular-shaped and most of the conical specimens have grooves 

 cut about the holes at the polished ends ; but this is not the case with any 

 of the others, though several that are yet to be mentioned are rudely 

 ornamented. 



Another specimen (P. M. 13358), from the shellheap of Santa Catalina, 

 is also of steatite, and is a little smaller than the one from the grave, 



