dertaken, was in common use among the prehistoric tribes as it 
_much ‘of the use of such a tool in their accounts of these people. 
» dark porphyry and is polished over the whole surface, and is, aS 
ind 
= It is four and a quarter inches long and two inches in greatest 
width. In Fig. 2 we have quite another form of ax, and one whics 
_ isnot common. It is about four inches long and two and a h 
inches wide. It is made of trap, and it is noticeable that most of 
__ these small axes are made of hard, compact material. I have seen 
> no > specimen of the notched ax which, like some of the celts, was 
near the middle as if the maker had thought of notching them 
_ that a handle might be more firmly attached, and these are al 
notched axes, although the notch is so very slight that I have 
= thought best to include e these specimens in the present article. 
Sane The Stone Ax in Vermont. [April, 
performing many of the labors which we know to have been un- 
has been for a long time among modern savages, and yet I do 
not remember that the early writers to whom we always turn for 
information respecting the customs of our predecessors, say very 
It is not impossible that some of the implements which we call 
celts may have done duty as spades, and that some of the ruder 
“notched axes” may have been, not axes, but hoes. The 
notches or grooves are always much wider than deep, although 
the depth varies very greatly in different specimens, but I have 
never seen it as'great as in the grooves of some of the larger 
grooved axes. The notches are usually about a third of the 
length below the blunt end of the ax, though in a few cases they 
are near the middle, as in Fig. 2. These axes group themselves 
naturally into two classes—those in which the 
width greatly exceeds the thickness and in 
which the surfaces are nearly or quite flat, and 
those in which the breadth and thickness are 
more nearly equal and in which the surfaces 
are often convex. Some specimens have one 
surface quite flat and the opposite convex, just 
` as is often the case in the celts, and it is pos- 
sible that these were used as. skin-dressers OF 
HRD: and without a handle, the notches 
rving as convenient places for the fingers as 
the hand grasped ibe tool. -The specimen shown in Fig. 1 is of 
eed are most of these implements, made with care and skill. 
ed at both ends, but one or two of the latter are drawn in 
