Fig. 336. (S. 1–1.) Side view of the large form in Fig. 352. George Hampton’s collection.
Fig. 337. (S. 2–3.) These are reproduced from plates illustrating Dr. Wm. M. Beauchamp’s “Polished Stone Articles used by the New York Aborigines,” New York State Museum Bulletin, vol. 4, no. 18. They have been drawn, which shows the bands in the stone better than do half-tones. These types are found in New York State and Canada, Ohio, and Indiana. As one passes into Michigan or south of Kentucky, the forms and materials change. Attention is called to the central object, perforated on either side. This was originally a winged object, but becoming broken was perforated after the manner of a tablet and used in a way different from that the original form would indicate. It must be observed, in studying these problematical forms, that the perforations or drilling are even in all winged types and the large objects, but in the flat tablets the holes were rimmed out, and are wide on the face, and small on the reverse side.
“Next from the right is a beautiful article and comes from Fabius or Pompey, much resembling one in the State Museum from that vicinity. It is made of a beautiful olive-green striped slate, and in form is like a slender pickaxe, having a central ridge along both sides, from end to end. Each end has a slight projection. In the centre, on one side, is a partially effaced ornament. It is seven inches wide by one and one fourth deep, and the orifice is nine sixteenths of an inch in diameter. No finer example of this form is on record.
“To the left is a pick-shaped article of black slate, unique in some respects. The centre is enlarged by a distinct concave sweep on either side, terminating in a central flattened surface. Near this is a lateral perforation on either hand, drilled precisely as in the gorgets. No other has been reported with holes like these, and if the stone had been placed on a staff, they might have served to attach pendant ornaments. The sides are covered with transverse lines, suggesting tallies. The blades are thin, and the total length is six inches, with a depth of one and one fourth inches. It was found on a camp-site on the Seneca River in 1875. The ends are abrupt, and may be either broken or unfinished.
“In the lower left-hand corner is a thick, crescent-formed banner-stone from Skaneateles Lake, made of green striped slate, and one inch deep by three and three eighths wide. The ends are rounded, and the orifice is a little over half an inch in diameter, contracting slightly in the interior of the stone. There are no village-sites near, and but few small camps.”
Occasionally, there are fine winged objects found in New England, and I present one in the lower specimen in the photogravure plate, Fig. 338. This was found in Massachusetts and is of mottled granite. But most of the New England forms are such as are shown in Fig. 339, from the collection of Mr. Deisher, and Fig. 342, from the collection of Professor G. H. Perkins, Burlington, Vermont, and the unfinished one, Fig. 322. It will be observed that these are quite different from the winged types of Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio which we have illustrated. In the photogravure plate, Fig. 338, is a small ceremonial to the right, of hard, mottled granite from Illinois. A blooded quartz object from Arkansas is shown to the left, while at the top is a beautiful “butterfly form” from southern Ohio.
Of the form and distribution of Wisconsin problematical stones, Mr. Charles E. Brown writes:—
