210 MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS MADE OF STONE. 



are of serpentine, very thin, and highly polished. Fig. 85 is a semilunar- 

 plate, one-eighth of an inch in thickness, and without any attempt at orna- 

 mentation. At the middle of the curved margin is a small circular hole, very 

 neatly drilled, and of nearly the same size throughout. The perforation in 

 this specimen was drilled only from one side, and probably by the aid 

 of one of the slender spiculse of flint, such as has already been noticed and 

 figured on a preceding page. Opposite the hole in this specimen, at the 

 middle of the straight margin or base of the gorget, is a shallow notch, 

 which may have been a hole drilled through the centre of the stone, when 

 a perfect disk, which subsequently has been broken in half, and the frac- 

 tured edge carefully smoothed down. We have frequently found frag- 

 ments of various patterns of ornamental stones thus preserved by drilling 

 a new hole for the suspension of the specimen after being broken. A small 

 oval pendant from Santa Catalina (P. M. 13153) is an illustration of this. 

 In this case four, holes have been used at different times, only one now 

 remaining perfect. 



Fig. 86 is a fragment of a quadrangular ornament of the same gen- 

 eral character, having two perforations, which vary greatly in size. 

 Fig. sg. Such perforated tablets of stone are common over the 



whole of North America, and much conjecture has been 

 ?|ff| indulged in as to their probable use; but there is little reason 

 to suppose they are other than simple ornaments. Speci- 

 mens found in ancient graves* in New Jersey show, from 

 their position, that they were placed upon the breast of the 

 stone ornament. c01 -p se w hen buried; and from this it is safe to infer that they 

 were simply ornaments. 



Allied to the above are the separated laminae of a square piece of mica 

 neatly perforated by numerous small holes, to secure, we presume, its at- 

 tachment to the clothing. Similar small pieces of this mineral occur on 

 Indian village sites in New Jersey, and have been often found in graves and 

 mounds in other parts of the country. Like the Dos Pueblos specimen, 

 many are thus perforated. Another use for these plates of mica, when large 

 enough, is believed by some to be that of mirrors. In treating of the South- 

 ern Indians Mr. Jones* remarks of this material, "large plates of isinglass 



* Page 376. 



