302 R. H. MATHEWS. 



Hatchets. — Some of the hatchets exhibited have been artificially 

 chipped into their present form before being ground, — but that 

 they have been formed from weathered rock fragments is evident 

 from parts of the original decomposed surfaces being still visible on 

 portions of the implements which have not been chipped. In 

 other words, they have not been quarried from a mass of rock. 



Some of them are naturally denuded rock fragments found on 

 the surface of the ground, and picked up by the natives on account 

 of their convenient shape and adaptability for taking a cutting 

 edge. Others have evidently been well rounded water-worn 

 pebbles of the requisite size and shape, found in the bed of some 

 creek or river, and ground to an edge at one end. 



No. 1 [Plate 43, tig. 1) is a chipped pebble of igneous rock which 

 appears to be of the nature of dolerite : it is five inches long, three 

 and one-eighth inches wide, and about one and one-quarter inch 

 through at the thickest part, and has been ground to a good 

 cutting edge. It is a perfect specimen of the native hatchet. 

 The other hatchets exhibited, Nos. 2 to 9, consist of the following 

 kinds of stone respectively : — diorite, felspar-porphyry, fine grained 

 granite, porphyry, highly altered sedimentary rock, clay-slate, and 

 andesite. 



Grinding. — The hatchets, or tomahawks, were ground and 

 sharpened on sandstone rocks, in places near water, to facilitate 

 the grinding ; and the groovings in the rock surface made by 

 rubbing the hatchets upon them, can be seen in numerous localities 

 in different parts of the country. The grooves are from half an 

 inch to an inch deep, three or four inches wide, and of variable 

 length — none of them being very long. The appearance of these 

 grooves on the rock surface is delineated in Plate 43, fig. 3. The 

 blacks also frequently carried with them a flat piece of sandstone, 

 or other suitable rock, from five to six inches long, three or four 

 inches wide, and about an inch thick, which they used as a whet- 

 stone to sharpen the edges of their tomahawks. These sharpening 

 stones are grooved on one side — sometimes on both — by repeated: 

 use, in the same manner as the larger rocks. We do not often 



