1881.] Aboriginal Stone-Drilling. 537 
3. By grinding with a tubular grinder, probably of ox-horn. 
4. By drilling with a stone drill. 
5. By drilling with a metallic drill. 
“Holes produced by any of these means could, of course, 
receive their final polish by grinding.” 
It appears doubtful to me whether in North America (north of 
Mexico) metallic tools for drilling stone were used, considering 
that the only metal which could have been employed for such 
purposes was hammered native copper—a substance too soft to be 
applied to any kind of hard stone without the aid of a very efficient 
triturated grinding material. Nor do I believe that the former in- 
habitants had sufficient skill in working copper to fashion it-into a 
tubular tool suitable for stone-drilling ; and to my knowledge no 
such object has ever been discovered in the United States. Soft 
stone, moreover, could be bored with greater facility by means of 
properly-shaped flint implements, as will be exemplified in this 
article. Even bronze, I think, would be found less serviceable 
than flint for drilling stone of inferior hardness? 
Dr. Ferdinand Keller, of Ziirich, the meritorious investigator 
of Swiss lake-habitations, has made quite interesting experiments 
in drilling stone and other substances employed by the lake- 
dwellers. He operated on stone with tubular bones of goats and 
sheep, and with hollow cylinders of stag-horn and yew-wood, 
these drills being inserted into spindles slightly pressed at the 
upper end, and set in motion by means of a bow. This apparatus 
corresponded in general principle to that figured by me on page 
399 of the Smithsonian Report for 1868. Water and quartz 
sand, of course, were necessary agents in the operation. Dr. 
Keller expresses himself quite satisfied with his success ; for 
there appeared the round, smooth hole, with the characteristic 
parallel striz and the core at its bottom, which is always seen in 
unfinished antique specimens drilled with a hollow tool. The 
work, however, progressed very slowly, and the operator adds to 
this statement the observation that no prepared hollow bone, 
which might have served as a drill, has thus far been discovered in 
the lacustrine deposits of Switzerland. After these experiments 
it occurred to him to employ a hollow cylinder made of ox-horn, 
‘Evans: The Ancient Stone Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Bri- © 
tain; London, 1872, Pp. 4 
*For oe = hard sini; such as granite, bronze tools have been found to be 
cage “7 trial of this kind is described in my Smithsonian — en- 
“ The Palenies Tablet in the United States National Museum,” p. 37, note. 
