1881.] Archeology in Vermont. 437 
little value. The most plausible theory for the use of the gouge, 
is, perhaps, that it was the chief implement used in excavating 
dug-out canoes. Champlain gives a very brief account of the 
manner in which some of the Indians whom he met on the coast 
of Maine, made canoes, and tells how by charring and scraping 
away the charred wood and again charring it, the desired form 
was obtained, but he does not give us any definite idea of the 
form or character of the stone implements with which the work 
was accomplished, and we know that in many parts of the coun- 
try, canoes were chiefly made of elm or birch bark. Evans seems 
to incline towards this view in speaking of the “hollow chisels” 
of flaked flint found in Denmark, and far less abundantly in Eng- 
land, as he states that they are found chiefly where canoes 
would be most likely to have been used. We also learn from old 
writers that gouges made from the columella of the conch, were 
used by southern tribes for scraping away charred wood in 
making canoes, and Evans, quoting another, says: “‘ On* the 
western coast of North America mussel shell adzes are still pre- 
ferred by the Abts to the best English chisels for canoe-making 
purposes.” Bone gouges are also common in the south, more so, 
according to Col. Jones, than those of stone. I have never seen 
any other than a stone gouge in Vermont. That some of the 
Specimens figured, or such as they, were thus used, either held in 
the hand or attached to a handle as adzes, is quite probable, but 
that all were so used does not seem so. Another theory has been 
Suggested, that the gouges were intended for use in tapping maple 
trees in the sugar making operations of the aborigines. I cannot 
See any basis of probability for this theory to rest upon. If this 
view were correct, we should find gouges most abundantly near 
those places where the sugar maple is most abundant, but this is 
not the case, at least in Vermont. On the uplands where the 
Sugar maple now grows, and has for a long time, we do not find 
S0uges as we do on the lowlands and meadows. While the form 
of such a gouge as that shown in figure 1 might suggest such a 
use as that just mentioned, the form of most would certainly be a 
Strong argument against such use, and the material of which 
many are made is such as to unfit them for cutting hard wood 
Such as that of the sugar maple. It is a remarkable fact that so 
many of our gouges appear to have seen so little service. It 
Would seem certain that implements requiring so much labor for 
