196 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS MADE OF STONE. 



be regarded as weights used to stretch the thread in spinning. This supposition is ren- 

 dered very probable by the fact that stone weights have been used in spinning, and from 

 the statement (made to me, in conversation, by Dr. Palmer, of Washington, I think) 

 that similar stones are still in use among the Indians of the Northwest. As it is gen- 

 erally accepted that the Mound Builders were informed in regard to the spinning of 

 fibre of some kind, and certainly of the twisting of materials which they could manu- 

 facture by some process akin to weaving, the use of these implements as weights seems 

 very probable, and as household implements they would often be more or less elab- 

 orately finished or carved. For my own part, I have for some time considered them as 

 representing, to a greater or less extent, according to size, material, shape, and finish, 

 1st, pestles; 2ud, sinkers; 3rd, spinning- weights ; 4th, ornaments. That their principal 

 use was as 'plummets' may be perhaps questioned, as there are far too many of them 

 found, and of too great a variation in size, to lead us to infer that they were used mainly 

 for that purpose. Though if it were necessary, in ancient architecture, to establish a 

 perpendicular line, the imjdements were at hand as 'weights' with lines attached. — 

 F. W. Putnam." 



Inasmuch as the specimens here figured were all found in graves im- 

 mediately on the sea-coast of California, and near a creek that doubtlessly 

 afforded excellent fishing, I am disposed to consider that the Dos Pu- 

 eblos specimens were probably more or less elaborately finished sinkers 

 for fishing-lines. 



[Since the preceding pages were written by Dr. Abbott large collections 

 from the graves and shellheaps on the coast and islands of Southern Cali- 

 fornia have been received at the Peabody Museum. Among the numerous 



Fig. 68. 



Sinker made of stone, with aaplialtum at the 



articles made of stone are several which, there seems to be little doubt, 

 were used as sinkers, and by their shape are allied to the implements Dr. 

 Abbott has described on the preceding pages. Two of these are of great 

 interest, as they still show the method by which they were fastened to fishing 

 nets or lines. They are all, however, of coarse material and finish, being 



