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376 General Notes. [June, 
carry as “dust.” If, as was suggested in the February number of this 
journal, one inch of soil will accumulate in one hundred and twenty-eight 
years, these specimens are fully thirty centuries old, and certainly their 
general appearance is suggestive of as considerable an antiquity. 
The large specimens that were taken from the mingled dust and ashes 
of this ancient dwelling-place comprise two corn-mills, as they are usu- 
ally called. They are both large, quadrangular, sandstone bowlders, 
one with the depression only on one side, the other with a shallow cup 
on each side. With them was one globular pebble three and one half 
inches in diameter, that evidently had been used as the crusher, in reduc- 
ing the corn or nuts to a powder. The grooved stone axes were thir- 
teen in number, varying somewhat in pattern, but particularly noticeable 
in that but two were of that form in which the groove does not extend 
entirely around the head of the ax, but leaves a smooth surface on the 
upper edge.’ This pattern may be of later date than those with the 
groove extending entirely around the specimen. I have found, on com- 
paring many hundreds of these relics, that as a rule those with the 
groove not encircling the implement are more accurately finished, and 
with a greater extent of polished surface. Pebbles of a very regular out- 
line were chosen, and the variation among them was in size only. On 
the other hand, pebbles not at all symmetrical were frequently chosen for 
axes, grooved and ground to an edge at one end; but such non-sym- 
metrical specimens, I believe, always have the groove extending entirely 
about them. The thirteen specimens here mentioned vary from eight to 
four inches in length. The workmanship displayed in their production 
quite accords with the rude arrow and spear points with which they 
were associated. Not one can be called a first-class ax, although some 
certainly are better finished than others. ‘There occurred two specimens 
of chipped clay-slate implements, that approach the ax in form, and 
which were evidently designed as cutting implements. One is quadran- 
gular, six inches in length by four in width, and about one inch in thick- 
ness. The chipping is easily traced over the entire surface. There 18 — 
no trace of a polished edge or groove. A slight depression on the upper 
and lower margins indicate that a handle was once attached to the speci- 
men, as ordinary grooved axes were hafted. The accompanying speck 
men is still ruder in finish, but has a better-wrought edge. It is ob- 
tusely triangular in outline, and a little shorter and narrower than the 
preceding. The pestles are eight in number and vary from one foot to 
four inches in length. None are polished and worked into an accurately 
cylindrical shape, and the larger ones all have the heads so battered as 1 
show that they were used as we use modern pestles in mortars, and not 
as “rollers,” or war-clubs, as some have suggested. The other spec 
mens, eight in number, consist of two net-sinkers, two hammer-stones, & 
Scraper, and three cobble-stones, two of which have been somewhat 
1 The American Naturalist, vi. 145, Figure 10. 
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