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hafted implements in his hand. Other methods of mounting 
stone hatchets may be seen in Cases E 2 and C 40. Schoolcraft 
figures some hafted wedge-shaped stone hatchets, mounted at 
right angles to the handle, the handle measuring from twenty to 
twenty-seven inches in length. A stone implement, mounted 
as an adze, has also been figured by Schoolcraft. 
Among the Spokain Indians, and some of the tribes west of 
the Rocky Mountains, according to Mr. Lord, stone hatchets are 
handed down from father to son as cherished heirlooms. Jade 
meris are similarly regarded as heirlooms by the New Zea- 
landers, and are highly prized by them. 
The use of stone hatchets does not appear to have been so 
general among the tribes west of the Rocky Mountains as 
among those who inhabited the country to the east of this 
range. " From a careful observation of the arts among the 
Aht natives," says Mr. Sproat, '* I am tolerably certain that no 
other materials than bone and shell were required by them for 
making their tools and weapons up to the time when iron was 
brought amongst them, say, within the last 150 years. They 
used bone tools, and bone fishing and hunting instruments, 
long after they had a knowledge of iron — as lately, indeed, as a 
few years ago ; and, at the present time, the mussel-shell adze, 
used in canoe-making, is preferred to one of any other material, 
and to the best English and American chisels. In felling large 
cedar-trees, and in other work, until the natives obtained the 
admirable American woodman's axe, they found their bone 
chisels more useful than any small-handled instruments of 
stone or iron ; bone had the requisite toughness, bluntness, and 
penetrating power for working cedar-wood for their purposes. 
The Ahts, however, had a few stone and copper (the latter not 
melted or cast) implements, when they were first visited by 
Cook, and probably earlier, and ground stone chisels can be 
found amongst them at the present day. But I think that these 
stone implements could not have been in general use on the 
Aht coast, as the Indians never describe their utility, but pro- 
duce old bone implements for every purpose on being asked 
what they used before they had iron." 
The Aht hunters, prior to the introduction of iron among 
them, used a kind of thrusting sword, having a wooden handle, 
three feet in length, tipped with the shell of the mussel. 
Lewis and Clarke tell us that the Indians on the Columbia 
split drift pine-wood with a wedge made of elk horn, driven by 
a mallet of stone curiously carved. 
L 2 
