73 
Gouges are not found on all Algonkian sites; the writer has collected 
only one specimen during the many years he has been doing archaeological 
work, They are more common in the central and eastern portions of 
Ontario than in the west. None is found on Iroquoian sites, except in- 
trusively on those of the post-European period. 
Combined Gouge and Adzes 
Implements hollowed at one end like a gouge and with a straight 
cutting edge at the other end are occasionally found on Algonkian sites. 
Ungrooved Axes 
Ungrooved stone axes, usually called “celts,” which are bilaterally 
symmetrical as viewed from the narrowest side, are less common than 
adzes. They are mostly of medium size (from about 3 to 5 inches) and 
most of them are oval in cross-section. As both faces are rounded they 
are not so easily halted as the flat-backed adzes, and so were probably 
mostly mortised into the handles. One slightly grooved on both edges is 
seen on Plate VI, figure 1. They are rare on Algonkian, and rarer still on 
Iroquoian, sites. Very few Iroquoian axes have the angles rounded as on 
Algonkian specimens. 
Grooved Axes 
Grooved axes are wider, more massive, and bulbous than the un- 
grooved specimens and have a groove at right angles to the longer diameter. 
They are of two types: in the one the groove extends only partly round 
the poll, a narrow side being usually left straight to permit a wedge to be 
driven between the withe handle to tighten it (Plate VI, figure 5) ; in the 
other more common type the groove extends entirely around the poll 
(Plate VI, figure 6). A few specimens of the first type have the straight 
side slightly grooved from end to end. They are mostly oval in cross- 
section. Only a few specimens have more than one groove, and the writer 
has seen only one with an oblique groove as on specimens from the United 
States, but this oblique grooving may not have been intentional. The 
grooves vary in width and depth; a few are bordered by low ridges. Some 
specimens are polished all over; others retain marks of the pecking process, 
especially in the grooves. They are from about 3f to 11 inches long, 2 to 
4f inches wide, and from If to 2f inches thick. The cutting edge is usually 
narrower than the upper portion of the implement, in one case being only 
about If inches wide. 
Grooved axes are not common on Algonkian sites and they are also 
not found at every site. There are records in the archaeological files of the 
National Museum of only one hundred and fourteen specimens from 
Ontario and Quebec. They decrease in number toward the east, fewer 
specimens being found in the eastern part of southern Ontario and Quebec 
than in the western part, where one county (Middlesex) alone yielded 
more than twenty specimens. A few specimens have been found intrusively 
in post-European Iroquois graves, 1 but none has been found at an early 
Iroquoian site. 
iSee Wintemberg: "Foreign Aboriginal Artifacts from post-European Iroquoian sites in Ontario”; Trans. Roy. 
Soc., Canada, third series, vol. XX, sec. II, pp. 40-41 (1926). 
