RELICS OF THE EARLY FRENCH PERIOD IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 
309 
implement. It was probably fitted to a wooden shaft and used in the 
seal fishery which flourished during the period of the early French 
occupation. 
Axes. 
Before the arrival of Europeans, the natives used axes of stone. 
At the best, these were unsatisfactory tools, and in the European iron 
axe they recognized a good thing. These axes early became an im- 
portant article of trade, and were sent to America in large numbers. 
Hundreds of these have been found in Ontario, but with us they are 
not so common. 
Fig. 2, plate x., shows a badly rusted iron axe, found by W. C. 
Simpson, at L’Etang, Charlotte County, and now in our museum. 
The eye is oval in shape, the length of the axe is eight inches, and it 
weighs one and three-quarter pounds. 
Fig. 3, plate x., shows a well preserved iron axe in our museum, 
labelled, “ Tomahawk of Milicete Tribe.” This poled form, Mr. 
David Boyle says, is not common in Ontario. In this specimen, the 
pole measures 2\ inches, the length of the axe is inches, the 
rounded cutting edge is 2f inches and the weight is one pound. 
Iron Gouges or Scrapers. 
Dr. Smith recovered from the graves at Tracadie three curved iron 
tools that may have been used as gouges or scrapers. They are all 
pretty badly rusted, but one specimen (fig. 1, pi. xii,) is sufficiently 
preserved to give a good idea of these tools. It is about 5J inches 
long, and the curved scraping edge is If inches wide. This specimen 
has a knob at the end of the handle. Mr. T. W. E. Sowter* has 
described and figured very similar implements from Lake Deschenes, 
in the Ottawa Yalley. He says : “ Mr. Boyle inclines to the belief 
that from the small bulb or knob at the end of the handles, they may 
have been used by means of pushing directly in the hand, perhaps as 
skin-dressers or flesh-scrapers. 
The other specimen figured (fig. 2 and 2a, pi. xii,) is of different 
shape and badly rusted. The third specimen has a blade two inches 
wide. 
•Ottawa Naturalist, January, 1900, p. 284. 
