Pl. 14.Figures 1—5, 18, 19WYMAN ON THE SHELL-HEAPS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Pl. 14.
WYMAN ON THE SHELL-HEAPS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Pl. 15.Figures 6—17WYMAN ON THE SHELL-HEAPS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Pl. 15.
WYMAN ON THE SHELL-HEAPS OF NEW ENGLAND.
Fig. 1. This instrument is ten inches long, two inches and a half broad at the top, and one at the point. It is made of one of the branches of the antler of the moose or elk. The breadth of the upper portion is not seen in the figure, as the piece is represented as viewed edgewise. It is obliquely truncated at the lower end, so as to give it a chisel-shaped edge, and shows the effect of having been hacked by some dull tool. Attached to a handle it might be used to dig with, or might serve for the purpose of a head-breaker, or “casse-téte,” as described by Father Rasles.[17]From Frenchman’s Bay.
Fig. 2. A flat-pointed instrument, 3¾ inches long, and 1¼ wide. This is made of the dense exterior portion of an antler, and at the lower end has a thin sharp edge as in Fig. 2a. From Crouch’s Cove.
Fig. 3. A piece of one of the branches of the antler of a deer, from which the tip has been cut off. The sides near the pointed end have been worked down so as to present four faces, two of the angles uniting them being quite acute. The detached piece having a deep notch would be provided with two points or barbs, and would be adapted to serve as the point of an arrow. Such points were used by the aborigines, and we are informed by Winslow, that when the Pilgrims were making their first explorations on the shore at Cape Cod, previously to landing at Plymouth, some of the arrows shot at them had the kind of point just described.[18]From Cotuit Port.
Fig. 4. An artificially pointed fragment of bone. From Crouch’s Cove.
Fig. 5. An artificially pointed fragment of bone, suitable for the purpose of an awl. From Crouch’s Cove.
Fig. 6. A fragment of a bone of a bird, obliquely truncated and artificially sharpened. From Crouch’s Cove.
Fig. 7. One of the lower incisors of a beaver, ground to a thin, sharp edge, which last is formed by the enamel on the inner, or flat side of the tooth. From Crouch’s Cove.
Fig. 8. A well wrought and polished spindle-shaped instrument, the lower end of which is flattened, and has a sharp edge; the upper portion is rounded with the end broken off, but appears to have been worked to a sharp point. From Frenchman’s Bay.
Fig. 9. A slender piece of bone, smoothly wrought and pointed. From Frenchman’s Bay.
Figs. 10 and 12, from Frenchman’s Bay, and 11 and 13, from Crouch’s Cove, are all made of flattened pieces, each being cut from the wallsof one of the long bones, and showing the concellated structure on one of the sides.
Fig. 15. From Eagle Hill; the serrated edge is quite sharp, but from this the bone rapidly increases to one-third of an inch in thickness, so as to render it wholly unsuitable to be used as a saw.
Figs. 16 and 17 are flat, scraped very thin, as seen in 17a; one of them is made from the bone of a bird. From Eagle Hill.
The specimens represented by the figures just enumerated, together with other wrought pieces more or less mutilated, and collections of the bones and shells from each of the heaps, are preserved in the Peabody Museum of Archæology and Ethnology at Cambridge, and in the Ethnological Department of the Essex Institute in Salem. Of these specimens, those represented in Figs. 6, 7, 11, 13 and 14, were from the Rev. J. A. Swan; Figs. 1, 9, 12 from Mr. William A. Hayes; Figs. 2 and 4 from Mr. Horace Mann; Figs. 10 and 17 from Mr. F. W. Putnam; Fig. 15 from Mr. E. S. Morse, and Figs. 3, 5, 8, 10, from the writer.
KJOEKKENMOEDDING
FOOTNOTES:
[1]“Quand les sauvages vont à la mer pour y passer quelques mois à la chasse des canards, des outards, et des autres oiseaux qui s’y trouve en quantité,” etc. Lettres du P. Sebastian Rasles à Narantsook ce 25 Oct., 1722. Lettres Edifiantes, Paris, 1838.
[2]Second Visit to the United States. New York, 1849. Vol. I. p. 252.
[3]Smithsonian Report, 1864, p. 370.
[4]History of the State of Maine. Hallowell, 1832. Vol. I. p. 80.
[5]The two heaps were examined in company with Dr. Calvin Ellis, Messrs, John L. Hayes, William A. Hayes, and R. E. Fitz, to whom the writer is indebted for valuable specimens found by them.
[6]The excavations were made by Rev. J. A. Swan, and Messrs. E. S. Morse, F. W. Putnam, Horace Mann, Edwin Bicknell, and the writer. The sketch of the locality was made by Mr. Joseph P. Thompson.
[7]Made by Messrs. E. S. Morse, F. W. Putnam, C. Cooke, and the writer.
[8]New England’s Rarities Discovered. London, 1672. p. 39.
[9]Observations on the Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and Maine. By A. S. Packard, jr. Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. Vol. I. p. 246.
[10]Travels in North America. New York, 1845. Vol. I. p. 205.
[11]Parkman. Jesuits in America. Boston, 1867. p. 30.
[12]New England’s Rarities Discovered, p. 11.
[13]Historical Collection of the Indians of New England, in Collections of Massachusetts History Society. Boston, 1792. p. 150.
[14]Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuse. Vol. I. p. 670.
[15]New England’s Discovered Rarities. London, 1635. p. 59.
[16]Prehistoric Times, by John Lubbock, 1805. p. 113.
[17]Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuse. Paris, 1838. Vol. I. p. 670.
[18]Young’s Chronicles of the Pilgrims. Boston, 1841. p. 158.
Transcriber’s Notes:Blank pages have been removed.Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.
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