1883.] 443 [Crosby. 



for your examination just such a stone spade, which I found 

 last summer in a field in Squantum, North Quincy. It is the 

 only one of this precise pattern that I have ever seen. The 

 implements which, in my opinion, were more commonly used 

 by our New England Indians were of much simpler and ruder 

 types, but they may all readily be classed under the two designa- 

 tions of spades and hoes. I have brought several specimens 

 of each type for your inspection out of a large number which 

 I have at home. It is only quite recently that I have begun to 

 search for them, but I have never failed to find them upon the 

 sites ol old Indian settlements. Most of them are from the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Boston, but I have found the same classes of ob- 

 jects in different localities in New England. The spade is the 

 larger, heavier implement, one remarkably well adapted to break 

 up the ground and prepare it for planting. The hoes are smaller, 

 generally not larger than the palm of the hand, and would be use- 

 fully employed for weeding. On several of them can be seen two 

 little nicks, at the upper end on each side, by which they were fast- 

 ened to handles. All the examples show upon the surface and 

 especially on the lower edge evident marks of wear and use ; but 

 so simple is their form, and so little artificial shaping has been given 

 to them that hitherto they have never attracted attention. That 

 they must have been in common use I think is indicated by the 

 number I have found after comparatively little search. 



ORIGIN AND RELATIONS OF CONTINENTS AND OCEAN- 

 BASINS. 



BY W. O. CROSBY. 



• (Introduction.) 



The reasoning of Thomson, Hopkins, and Darwin, and the very 

 important consideration that pressure — except with a few bodies 

 which, like water, expand on freezing — must raise the fusing 

 point and thus favor solidification, leave but little room to doubt 

 that the earth as a whole is a very rigid body. So convincing 

 are the arguments, that this notion of an essentially solid earth 



