336 The Stone Ax in Vermont. [ April, 
of the same length. The long, slender axes found in some of 
4 the Western localities do not occur in the Champlain valley. 
Our grooved axes are not often very rude but, though seldom 
polished, the surface is generally well picked and smoothed. The 
edge is, naturally, always polished, but the groove is not in any 
specimen so completely smoothed that the pits and striæ 
made by the instruments used in excavating it are obliterated, 
and in most cases there is little attempt at polishing it. Even 
when the rest of the surface is smoothed, the groove is not. This 
is unlike what is common among stone axes from other places, 
for in these we very often find the groove finely polished. 
In Fig. 3 we have represented a specimen of singular form, and 
in some respects unique. 
The material of which this ax is made, 
instead of being of trap or quartzite, or 
some such hard, compact stone, is quite 
peculiar in that it is of a red sandrock 
common along Lake Champlain, and 
which is not a very suitable material for 
an ax. As shown in the figure this 
specimen appears more rude and ill-fin- 
ished than it was originally, for, either 
from the effects of weathering or har 
usage, the smooth surface which evi- 
ES dently existed at first, has been flaked 
Seas off in many places; giving a rude appear 
oe ance. 
3 _ This is one of the larger of our axes, the length being eight 
inches, width across the head four and a half inches, while the gen- 
eral width below the groove is four inches. The special peculiarity 
: of this ax is found in the obliquity of the edge, which is not very 
_ well shown in the figure. That portion of the ax below the gr oove 
- is not worked to the same plane as that above, but is as if twi 
i ` spirally so that a line drawn parallel to the edge would cross at 4 
on large angle a similar line drawn across the head or parallel with 
__the groove. Nor is this an isolated example. Ina fine large @®¥” | 
in our collection, from Springfield, Mass., the same obim woo 
