Fig. 17. Celt with heavy shaft made of dark speckled tufa—½. Fig. 18. Celt or ax with constriction near the top.


Fig. 19. Flaked and partially polished celt of dark tufa—½. Fig. 20. Well polished celt of dark tufa—½.

Two superb implements are illustrated in Figs. 19 and 20, the one in the rough excepting at the cutting edge, where it is ground into the desired shape, and the other neatly polished over nearly the entire

surface. The surfaces are somewhat whitened from decomposition, but within the rock is nearly black, and the eye could not distinguish it from a dark slate. The material is shown by microscopic test to be a volcanic tufa. These examples were evidently intended for more delicate work than the preceding. The shapes of the specimens illustrated in Figs. 21 and 22 indicate a still different use. The upper

end of the implement is large and rough, as if intended to facilitate holding or hafting, while the shaft diminishes in size below, terminating in a narrow, symmetrical, highly polished edge, a shape well calculated to unite delicacy and strength. The highest mechanical skill could hardly give to stone shapes more perfectly adapted to the manipulation of stone, metal, or other hard or compact substances. The material is a very dark, compact, fine grained tufa.



Fig. 21. Narrow pointed celt of dark tufa—½. Fig. 22. Narrow pointed celt of dark tufa—½.

An additional example is given in Fig. 23. The shaft is cylindrical

and terminates in a conical point at one end and in a very narrow, abrupt, cutting edge at the other. The whole surface is polished. The material is the same dark tufa.


Fig. 23. Cylindrical celt with narrowpoint, of dark tufa—½.

The class of objects illustrated in this and the two preceding cuts comprises but a small percentage of the chisel-like implements.