Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/471

Rh The stone implements are much the same as those found in various parts of the country. There seems, however, to be a remarkable paucity of grooved axes, there having been but two found so far. There are numbers of the ungrooved "celts," as well as of sling-stones, blunt at each end, but with a groove in the middle by which to fasten the handle. Some of these stones were also probably used as sinkers for nets in fishing, and are very similar to those found in Swiss lakes, as noticed by Dr. Keller. Rubbing-stones for polishing celts, hammers, anvils, pestles, and corn-pounders, are also abundant. Some pieces of a coarse, gritty sandstone have shallow grooves worn into them, which are supposed to have been used in rubbing down some of the bone or flint implements. Other pieces, with similar grooves, but made of close-grained sandstone, were probably used to straighten the shafts of the arrows. The shaft, at first wet and green, was rubbed up and down in the groove, and all the bends or twists thus taken out. Stones like these have been used by the Indians of the historic period.

Reference was made in the early part of this article to the name of the "Pottery-Field," given to the burying-ground. It may be inferred from the name that pieces of pottery were abundant, and the number of vessels taken out fully confirms the appropriateness of the name. These are all of one general shape and character. The material is a clay mixed with finely-powdered shells, and was baked in the sun. Nearly all the vessels are furnished with four handles, and are generally devoid of any ornamentation. Some have salamander-shaped handles, and the few that are ornamented have simply cross-lines and stripes with lines running round the vessel near the top, and perhaps a few dots. Though some of them are very well formed, they do not show any great advance in art.

Among the most interesting remains of any race of people, are the rude beginnings of art they have left behind them; and, though the people under consideration did not have, as far as we know, any written language, they have left a few memorials of their artistic feelings in the shape of some carvings on bone, and a few inscribed stones. The most interesting of these are here figured. Fig. 20 represents, on a piece of limestone, the head and forelegs of some curious animal. What is meant is hard to imagine. The teeth are marvelous, but still, in their arrangement, are like the teeth of the wolf-pipe in Fig. 19. Fig. 21 is a portion of a bone having peculiar marks cut on it. The marks are the same on