Gouges.
While there are perhaps no true gouges in the collection, there are some examples of a form between a celt and a gouge, illustrated in [figure 65], of serpentine, from Caldwell county, North Carolina.
Implements of this form are known to have been used to tap sugar maples, and also to hollow out wooden troughs, and are very common in the north, though less abundant in the south.[20] It is in those localities in which bark instead of logs was used for canoes that they are most numerous. Sometimes they were hollowed the whole length and used as spiles.[21] They were also employed instead of celts in hollowing wooden mortars and the like when a more regular concavity was desired.[22]
Chisels and Scrapers.
The aboriginal implements known as “chisels” are round, elliptical, or rectangular in section. The flint and jasper specimens are generally widest at the edge, the reverse being usually the case with those of other material. Most of them have marks of hammers at the blunt end, though some are polished at the top and a few, from eastern Tennessee, are sharp at both ends. The top (except in the double-edged ones) is usually flat, though a few are pointed or very thin, almost with cutting edges. Jaspers and flints are chipped, with the facets polished, the edges highly so. Any form may occur in any locality. Almost invariably they have scraper-form edges. The length is from 2 to 6 inches.
Fig. 65.—Celt, showing thin, gouge-form edge.
Typical examples are shown in [figure 66], of yellow jasper, from a grave in Mississippi county, Arkansas; [figure 67], of novaculite, from an unknown locality in Arkansas; [figure 68], of serpentine, from Bradley county, Tennessee; [figure 69], of sienite, from Caldwell county, North Carolina; and [figure 70], of gray jasper, from Bradley county, Tennessee. Some specimens are sharp and worn at both ends, and could have been used only with handles.
