Stone hammers and mauls. The hammers and mauls are long and short, broad or thick, and narrow, nearly uniform in thickness, or else tapering more or less toward one end. Most of them are between four and six inches in length, but some have been found almost a foot in length and six inches in thickness. These latter are, of course, very heavy, and must have been used in pounding or splitting hard or tough, heavy substances. The correct name for such is beetle, maul, or mallet. One specimen of a grooved hammer found in the region is made from a true hematite nodule and is only three fourths of an inch in length. Some mauls and hammers have a complete continuous groove near the middle of the stone; but in most cases there is half an inch or more ungrooved, the furrow ceasing at the point from which the handle of the implement is directed. The usual rocks employed in their manufacture are gneiss and granite; but limestone and amphibole sometimes occur. Ungrooved mauls and hammers have been found, and occasionally one almost spherical in shape. No fluted specimens have been reported.
Stone discs. Circular stone plates or discs are not of frequent occurrence in this region; yet quite a number have been found. Like the beetles and hammers, they are generally turned up by the farmer’s plough in the cultivation of his farm. These discs are made of fine-grained sandstone and gneissoid rocks, and a few have been found bearing carvings upon them. In a measure these Manitoba discs remind one of the interesting stone discs and plates of Alabama described by Mr. Clarence B. Moore, but they are usually of a simpler type than those of the South.
Stone spade or shovel. In a mound in 1907 the writer found a stone implement which strongly resembles the modern shovel in form and size.
Stone axes. Only a few axes are known here, and they have prominent ridges bounding the central encircling groove.
Arrow-heads of quartzite and flint are tolerably numerous. Very few examples have been taken from the earthworks, nearly all having been discovered by digging or ploughing the soil. Most of the latter are rudely finished, while those discovered in the older mounds usually exhibit superior workmanship.
One specimen of blade or unbarbed arrow-head in the possession of the writer has a well-marked patina over its entire surface. It is about three inches in length, and an inch and three quarters wide at its base. Its material is translucent flint or agate. The patination of this flint artifact must have required a long period of time, perhaps one thousand years or more. It was ploughed out of the prairie at a depth of five or six inches.
A few flint scrapers have been collected.
Pipes of stone. These are straight tubular bowls made of catlinite or red “pipestone” from Minnesota, beautifully formed and polished. They have been found only in the burial-mounds, and they do not at all resemble the modern Indian pipes.
Objects made from bone. These are not numerous in this district. They consist chiefly of bone skewers and awls, whistles made from the ulna of the wing of the eagle or other large bird of flight (see Fig. 528), bone armlets and beads. The armlets have holes by which they were evidently laced or fastened upon the arms, and they are usually decorated by grooves and notches. They are made from broad, flat bones, generally the scapulæ of the larger animals. A bone blade or knife is sometimes found. A comb-like hide-dressing bone tool, an arrow-nock, and primitive bone beads have been recently taken from mounds by the writer. Only a very few simple ornaments of deer antler have been found.
Shell objects. There is a variety of articles here made from sea-shells and river-shells. A large spoon is made from one of the valves of the shell of the fresh-water mollusc Unio. But the majority are ornaments, and are made out of univalve shells from the ocean. Oblong, flat pendants, large circular rings, oval, circular, and tubular beads of shell occur.