1885. ] The Stone Ax in Vermont. 1149 
lighter shade. It is very smooth, and the edge is unusually 
sharp. Both surfaces are quite flat. 
It is nearly five inches long and three 
across the edge. Celts of this form 
are less common than those of the 
other classes, and are usually of me- 
dium size and of hard, compact mate- 
rial, such as quartz, of which several 
are made, or porphyry. They are 
almost always made with great care, 
and even those of granular quartz are 
polished about the edge and some- 
times over the entire surface. As any 
collector of stone implements will 
readily believe, there are many celts 
in our Vermont collections which do 
not clearly come within any one of 
the above groups, but are interme- 
diate in their character. Nevertheless Fic. 7. X % 
there are very few which cannot be 
placed in one or another of the four classes with sufficient accu- 
racy for a general description. It is rather remarkable that so 
few of our celts show broken or worn edges. Some of them do 
indeed bear abundant evidence of severe service, but most have 
sharp even edges as if only just from the maker’s hand. Either 
the larger part of these implements were skin-dressers, fleshers 
and the like, as doubtless some of them were, or if used for any 
work that broke or defaced the edge, they were very promptly 
repaired, and that this was sometimes done is familiar to every col- 
lector. The shape or bevel of the edge is by no means uniform. In 
some of our specimens the angle inclosing the edge iis very large, 
and the bevel abrupt and short, as in many of our modern tools 
used by iron workers, while in others it is less abrupt, and in most 
quite like the edge of our modern ax, for which at best the celt 
could have been only a very indifferent substitute, although as a 
flesher or skinning knife or scraper some of the forms may very 
well have served most excellently. 
