338 = The Stone Ax in Vermont. [ April, 
two specimens are alike, but most of them resemble more or less 
closely one or the other of the forms here figured. The specimen 
shown (very much reduced in size) in Fig. 4 is a very well made 
and finished ax, worked out of a syenite cobble-stone, and the 
upper end apparently still retains the general form of the pebble. 
It is of average size, being five inches long and three and a half 
inches wide just below the groove. This specimen illustrates the 
short and wide form, while the less common and longer form is 
seen in Fig. 5. This ax is one of the largest specimens, and 
most, if not all, of this form are large. Some of them are less 
rude than that figured, which shows the effects of hard usage,” 
though it probably was very well finished at first. It is made ofa 
dark gray grit or hard sandrock, much like that used for making 
the harder varieties of grindstones. The flat surfaces are rubbed 
quite smooth, although somewhat pitted. The groove is only mod- 
erately deep, but is unusually wide, and is smooth as if worn by 
long usage, and as the figure shows, it runs obliquely. Both sides 
are flat, one somewhat more so than the other, and the edge is 
formed by beveling the surface, mainly from one side, This ax, 
and the same is true of all of this form, was evidently worked out 
of a mass taken from a ledge. Not only does the smoothness of 
the groove show that this implement has been much used, but the 
edge is chipped and broken somewhat, and the head very consid- 
erably battered as if it had done hard duty asa maul. It has 
been thought by some that these large axes were, some of them 
at least, used to break holes in the ice in winter for fishing or to 
get water, and this specimen may have served for some such 
work. Very few axes so large as this have been found in this 
State. The figure is somewhat more than one-third natural size. 
` The length is a little over nine inches, and the width above the 
groove nearly five and a half inches, while just below the groove 
it is five inches. The specimen weighs four pounds, which is much 
less than that of some of the Southern specimens. The inequality 
of the two flat sides, which is sufficient to be quite noticeable in 
this specimen, is sti!l more marked in some others, and, as in the 
celts and other forms of the ax, this flattest side is always 
‘smoother, sometimes very much so, than the opposite side, a fact 
for which it does not seem easy to account. Ina skin-dresser OF 
hand ax it is quite natural that the side which, from accident 
; _ Or intention, was most nearly flat should be held down upon the 
