1881. ] Archeology in Vermont. 427 
heads of arrows may yet be seen scattered over the ground.” I 
have not been able to ascertain the existence of a collection of 
the above-mentioned implements, and it is probable that like 
many other similar objects, they were thrown aside by their finders 
as useless, This is to be regretted, as a collection of stone imple- 
ments, the locality of which was certain and also the tribe that 
made and used them, would be of great value to us as a basis of 
a more definite ethnology than is at present possible, or probably 
ever will be. 
Proceeding now to special groups of objects, we will first exam- 
ine those implements commonly known as “ gouges,” and which 
for convenience will be so designated in the following pages, 
though, as will appear, it is not the belief of the writer that all, if 
any, of them were used for the purposes for which our modern 
gouges are designed. I have chosen this class of implements for 
description before all others, because, as archzologists well 
know, they are eminently characteristic of eastern collections, 
very few having been found in the Mississippi valley and none, I 
believe, in the mounds, and are especially characteristic of our 
Vermont collections. It seems probable that the gouge is of com- 
paratively modern origin, and was made and used by such tribes or 
nations as the Algonkins and Iroquois, and were unknown to 
more ancient peoples. This implement is not, I believe, common 
in any other part of the world except the Eastern United States ; 
and even here they are not so abundant as to occur in great num- 
bers in our collections, yet they form an important part of them. 
Presenting great variety in form, size and material, the gouges 
seem rather to form a class of implements, some designed for one 
Purpose and some for another, than to be simply different forms 
of one implement. The absence of gouges from large portions 
of this country, is the more remarkable because we find so many 
other implements either in identical or similar forms over all that 
Portion of the United States east of Kansas. 
The general character and variety in form and material of the 
Vermont gouges will best appear in the following descrip- 
“ions and figures, which include all the different classes which 
have seen, though each of these may be taken as a type of 
Which varieties may exist. The gouge described on page 
744 of Vol. xi of the NATURALIST, and figured on page 
741, may serve as a type of still a different form, from any 
