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Rh, those of our stone hatchets were fastened which have a bent and polished edge.

The most ancient inhabitants, or as we may term them, the aborigines, would have made but little progress, had they attempted to fell a large and full-grown tree, with nothing more than so imperfect an instrument as the stone hatchet. They doubtless pursued the same method as the savages of our days, who when about to fell a tree with stone hatchets, avail themselves also of the assistance of fire, in the following manner. In the first place some of the bark is peeled off, by means of the hatchet, from the tree which is to be felled. In the opening thus made coals are placed, which are fanned till they are all consumed. By this means a portion of the stem is charred, which is then hewn away with the hatchet, and fresh coals are continually added until the tree is burned through. In our peat bogs old stems of trees have been found which appear to have been thus felled by stone hatchets with the aid of fire.

It can scarcely be doubted that their boats must have been of a very simple kind. From several relics which have been dug up, we may conclude that the aborigines in the