436 Archeology in Vermont. [June, 
intended to be so, Figure 10 shows one of this sort. The ma- 
terial of all is rather soft, and the surface is not ground so smooth 
as in many gouges of other forms. The groove is shallow, long 
and wide, and, as has been noticed, the edge is not sharp. The 
surface shown is flat, the lower regularly convex. The length of 
this specimen is 3.5 inches, width across the edge, 1.6 inch, and 
the thickness in general about .5 inch, though in places more. 
Still farther removed from gouges with cutting edges, are speci- 
mens with a very shallow groove, and with the grooved end 
not brought to an edge or anything like it, but only worked 
somewhat thinner than the rest of the implement and then evenly 
rounded. These are made from talcose or schistoze rocks an 
hence are not very hard. ; 
A comparison of the figures given with these pages will make 
evident several facts worthy of notice. As the reader has prob- 
ably discovered, I have included under the name “gouge oF 
variety of specimens, some of them without very much in com- 
mon, but it has seemed more convenient to do this than to at 
tempt a subdivision of the group into classes. The term groove 
has also been for the same reason used to designate the excavated 
portion of each implement, whatever its character may be. € 
have seen that in some the edge is straight, in others curved, 
in some concave, in others flat, and the groove is found in all 
gradations between a very simple, oval depression and one ele- 
gantly wrought and extending through the entire length of the 
specimen, as in figure 1. In most, the lower surface, by 
which is always meant that opposite the groove, is convex, both 
transversely and, to a less degree, longitudinally, though i 
a few cases the thickness is greatest, not near the center, but at 
the upper end. This end in nearly all specimens is narrower than 
the other. In many specimens this end is rough and broken, i 
splintered, but not in all, for there are specimens in which this end 
is as smooth as any part of them. 
A gouge in which the edge shows signs of hard usage is very 
uncommon. These facts must be considered when we attempt 
to discover the purpose for which these implements were designed. 
I have searched the writings of Champlain and other early ae 
plorers for some mention of these implements, and some hiat 
to their use, but thus far in vain, and without some such aid, ge 
orizing upon the use of these, or any other such implements - 
