50 
adzes. No knobbed adzes were found, but a few have been found in Nova 
Scotia. One, said to be from Halifax county, is Cat. No. 47 in the Fairbanks 
collection in the Provincial Museum 1 . Some have three knobs. These 
knobs on one side of the celts suggest that they were hafted as adzes 
rather than as axes. 
On the whole the celts of Merigomish harbour are chiefly remarkable 
for being crude and asymmetrical as if used entirely as adzes, only the one 
shown on Plate XII, figure 6, being symmetrical. Two-thirds of them 
were broken in two. The cutting edges are nearly convex in outline 
rather than straight, and, consequently, could be used to cut a slight 
groove somewhat as a gouge can be used. They are not noticeably oblique, 
that is, the edge is not nearer the head at one end than at the other except 
in a few cases, such as the double-bitted celt on Plate XIII, figure 4. In 
such cases this feature is probably due to careless sharpening or to re- 
sharpening after a slight break or nick in one end without straightening 
the whole edge. One described on page 49 is notched. Three or 4 per 
cent are double-bitted. A double-bitted celt was found at Tracadie, 
Nova Scotia, and is in the possession of Mr. Stead, the Dominion resident 
engineer at Chatham, New Brunswick. 
As compared with grooved axes, which are rare 2 in Nova Scotia, 
celts are unusually common, being surpassed in numbers only by points 
chipped out of stone for arrows and knives, by points rubbed out of bone 
for such uses as arrows, barbs, and awls, and by potsherds. Piers describes 
the Nova Scotia adzes as made from quartzite, hard slate, and, in one case, 
from sandstone, by pecking and polishing, a few being very roughly chipped 
as if incomplete, and as being neat, and slender, although some are only 
twice as long as broad. He says that so far as he knows all the celts found 
in Nova Scotia are asymmetrical, and are believed by him to have been 
left by Eskimos, and that the rare grooved ax was left by Micmacs during 
a shorter period of occupancy. But on Merigomish harbour there are 
many of these adzes and no grooved axes in the same shell-heaps with 
pottery that is clearly of Algonkian type, whereas the nearest Eskimos 
do not make pottery and it is not reported from their archaeological sites. 
Micmac Indians still live in the vicinity, even on Indian island near heap B 
and within a mile of heaps A and D, which were the two largest heaps that 
were dug. 
Hafting and Use. The celts, especially those with asymmetrical bits, 
were probably hafted and used in carpenter work as adzes. The asymmet- 
rical condition of the bit suggests that all were used as adzes rather than 
as axes. Some, however, may have been used as axes for cutting wood, 
or even for hunting or in warfare, as mentioned on pages 21 and 76. None, 
in collections from Nova Scotia, was used strictly as a chisel, in the opinion 
of Piers (a, page 113). The celts may have been hafted by winding a 
withe about them, or by fitting them into a hole in the side of a fairly 
large handle. An adze, Cat. No. 19 in the Patterson collection, from 
heap O, shows around an oval-shaped hollow about midway between the 
two ends on one side an area about 1 by 3 inches, worn smooth possibly 
by the end of the adze handle. 
1 Cf. Piers (c). Fig. 47, Plate II, and p. 41. 
* Cf. Piers (a), PP. Ill and 113; Piers (c), p. 36 et seq. 
