1879. | Archeology of the Champlain Valley. 743 
search almost in vain. With the exception of one of the carved 
heads mentioned above, which is of white marble, I know of no 
Specimen made from any of the kinds of stones mentioned. As 
a general rule, I think that the stone implements found in the 
Champlain valley are made of less beautiful material than those 
from the Mississippi valley, so that if we could see collections of 
similar objects from each locality side by side, there would be a 
noticeable difference in brightness and variety of color. This is 
especially true when we consider only those objects made of the 
different varieties of siliceous stone. It is not altogether owing, 
it may be, to any lack of taste in the selection of material for 
making arrow and spearheads, but to the fact that the kinds of 
stone conveniently accessible to the New England tribes, which 
were suitable for flaking, were fewer and less beautiful than those 
found in the West. Occasionally jasper or agate, or some 
attractive bit of stone was brought from Lake Superior or the 
Mississippi, and specimens made from such imported material are 
at once conspicuous in a collection on account of their greater 
beauty, but ordinarily the less brightly-colored materials, the gray 
quartzites, dull brown or black hornstones, and bluish or milky 
quartz, such as could be taken from ledyes near at hand, furnished 
the staple for flaked articles, while pebbles from the drift somewhat 
increased the variety. Fine grained flint, prettily veined jaspers 
and agates are not wanting, but quartzites were largely used, and 
our collections lack much of the beauty which we see in those 
from other localities. Nevertheless some of the milk-white 
quartz specimens are very pretty, and one of the most commonly 
used materials, a translucent, bluish quartz, is, in fine specimens, 
by no means destitute of beauty. 
So called “ gouges,” though not among our most abundant 
specimens, are yet relatively quite common, and of an almost 
endless variety of form, That all of these grooved implements | 
were used as gouges is very doubtful. Of some of the speci- 
mens I have found it impossible to do more than conjecture the 
use. None of the objects found are more carefully formed or 
finely finished than some of these “ gouges,’ and most of them 
are far more carefully made than the “ chisels” or celts. Some 
of the larger specimens are a foot in length, of basalt or other 
hard stone, but yet are made with a degree of skill, as exhibited 
a _ in the symmetry of form and smoothness of surface, that excites s - 
