51 
Gouges . No gouges were found and there is none in the Patterson 
collection from Merigomish harbour. However, gouges are about half as 
numerous as adzes made of stone in general collections from Nova Scotia. 
Many specimens, especially from Grand lake and Shubenacadie river, 
are in the Provincial Museum at Halifax 1 . In southern New England 
gouges are abundant, although very rarely found in the shell-heaps or the 
graves of the historic tribes. They are abundant 2 also in certain apparently 
very old graves in the northern Champlain valley. The Nova Scotian gouges 
are made of material like that used for celts or adzes, into which they grade. 
There are three classes. In the first the groove is almost imperceptible, 
and confined to the vicinity of the cutting edge. In the second class the 
groove is deep, well defined, and extends about half the length of the gouge, 
suggesting strongly that the gouges were hafted as adzes. In the third 
class the groove is deep, and well defined, and extends the whole length of 
the gouge. The presence of about half as many gouges as celts in other 
parts of the province, and their complete absence at the harbour, where 
so many celts were found, seems to suggest that the prehistoric peoples 
of Nova Scotia included some of a culture or tribe different from those 
at Merigomish: or it may indicate that the prehistoric occupations of the 
province included one or more that involved the use of a gouge, and were 
practised commonly perhaps only in the interior of the province. 
Grooved Axes. Grooved axes, which are common south and west of 
Merigomish, in much of the area inhabited by other Algonkian tribes, 
and which are said to have been found on Prince Edward Island, are absent 
both among the finds on Merigomish harbour and in the Eisenhauer shell- 
heap, unless the notched adze described on page 49 (Plate XIII, figure 3) 
may be considered as one. They are rare in Nova Scotia 3 , only twelve 
being known from the province, one in the National Museum of Canada, 
one in the Patterson collection, and ten in the Provincial Museum, two 
of these being in the general collection, six in the Des Brisay collection, 
and two in the Fairbanks collection. Patterson (a, page 246) states that 
he obtained his from St. Mary, and that it is the only one he had from 
Nova Scotia. Another of these axes is from the north bank of Shubena- 
cadie river, about miles south of Enfield, in Hants county. One in the 
Des Brisay collection is from near New Germany, Lahave river, and 
another in that collection is from near Chelsea. One of the axes is double- 
grooved, and, therefore, if it really came from Nova Scotia, is unique 
in the province. They are made from water worn, oval, quartzite pebbles, 
and the edge and groove were made by pecking. The groove completely 
encircles the ax. 
Hammer stones. Hammerstones to the number of ten were found on 
the harbour, also the seven specimens described below that may have 
been used partly as hammers, five celts (pages 48 and 53) that seem to 
have been used as hammers until the edges had been much battered, and 
three celts that were blunted on the edges, possibly by such use. Three 
of the hammerstones are pebbles about as large as a man’s fist, two are 
1 Cf. Piers (a), p. 113. 
* Cf. Dixon, p. i3. 
• Cf. Piers (a), pp. Ill, 113. 
