Barbados. 
The specimens exhibited from Barbados have been presented 
to the Collection by the Rev. Greville J. Chester, who has kindly 
furnished the following information respecting them : — ** In 
Barbados there is no hard stone, nothing harder than coralline 
limestone ; the aborigines therefore were obliged to import hard 
stone implements and weapons from the other islands, or from 
the main continent of South America. For ordinary purposes, 
however, they used implements made of various kinds of 
marine shells, and of the fossil shells from the limestone. These 
shell implements vary in length from one and a half to 
six and a half inches ; some in my possession are beautifully 
formed. In the commonest type the natural curve of the 
shell formed the handle. Discs and beads made of shell, 
and large quantities of pottery, in a fragmentary state, have 
been found associated with the shell implements. The large 
aumber of implements discovered under rock-shelters, and in 
gullies, proves the existence of a large native population in Bar- 
bados, and as shell hatchets are not found in the other West 
Indian Islands, it is clear that they are of purely local origin. 
A 41. 
The specimens Nos. i to 19 in this Case were found in various 
parts of the island of Barbados. Nos. 3, 5, 6, 12 and 18 are 
pieces of shell, probably intended to be made into implements- 
Nos. I, 2, 4, 5, 7 to II, 14 and 17, are shell hatchets. Nos. i, 
2, 8, 9, 10 and 14 are hollow on one side, and have a gouge- 
like appearance. The hollow, however, is natural, and in no 
case has it been extended, by artificial rubbing, to the cutting 
edge. 
Nos. 4 and 17 differ from the other shell hatchets in being 
nearly equally broad throughout their length ; all the others 
taper away from the cutting end of the implement. No. 4 has 
the natural hollow of the shell on the under surface. No. 17 is 
flat on the under surface. The edge of No. 8 is much blunted 
from use. No. i was found on the Codrington estate, parish of 
St. John (Barbados), in 1868 ; No. 2 was found near Codrington 
College in 1867; No. 4 was found below Mount Ararat (Bar- 
bados), parish of St. Michael ; No. 7 was found in the parish 
of St. Andrew ; Nos. 8 to 1 1, in the parish of St. Luke ; No. 14 
was found at Conset Point (Barbados); No. 17, in the parish 
of St. James. 
