Year: 1874

MAINE many OF the cheap lrOn axes OF
hatchets Of the same form that the French
have always used in Canada, quite awkward
to chop with but acceptable to the Indians
as an Improvement upon the stone Ratchet.
On one farm in Masardis, near the confluence
of a tributary with Aroostook river, as
many as six or eight Of these axes have
been found foot or more below the surface
of intervale soil, anil quite frequently an
old stone fireplace is plowed out. One of
these l was fortunate to save from the eager
claims of antiquarans abroad who are apt
to carry them off elsewhere. Somewhere
near midway from Atlantic tide-water to
the river st. Johns. on Mattawamkeag, a
branch of the Penobscot, was found rs years
ago large oaken chest full of Catholic rel
les. 1t was found buried, but the contents
were in good state of preservation. This
chest we suppose was left on the passage Of
the Jesuits from Mt. Desert Island to the
River St. John.


On the Kennebec near NOrridgewock was
the most noted of these missions, which was
at an early day attacked at the time Of
some special church festival and almost the
whole congregation, including priest and peo-
pie, old and young, were murdered by the
English As to the


Indian RELICS,


they are not as abundant as in some other
portions of New England. A friend of
mine on Aroostook River plowed up pile of
chips where arrow heads had been made,
and among them many half-6nished or spoil
ed arrow heads, made in part Of blue flint,
and others of red jasper. The quarries from
whence these stones were obtained were
probably 100 miles away. there was also
found in the same field an iron hatchet and
a milestone of Nova Scotia sandstone. The
most noticeable of all these | was fortunate
to secure. Stone hatchets and hollow-edged
gouges we are informed by Indians were not
used for cutting wood or tapping trees, but
for cleaning the skins Of animals, along with
the use Of a steel knife, the hollow gouge
being used on the ribs and leg bones There
is stone hatchet of harder material, made
more in the fern Of an AK, with groove
around the head for withe handle. | have
seen these, but am not fortunate enough to
have one. One of these Indian relics of the
most interest to myself is fine ainty stone
the size and thickness Of mans hand. 1t
is milky white, as hard as most Of the pre-
cous stones, something like the agate. We
cannot conjecture the use of this stone unless
it was the ornamental breastplate Of the fe-
males, such as they have Of tim or silver.
have never seen the kind Of stone before,
but think it must be chalcedouy.. THIS was
not ground or polished, but put ih form b5
the same process with the hammer as they
shape their arrow heads.


A friend OF mine in Houlton, J. c. Mad.
agan. has a gore mysterious relic Of the


Stone Period,


the material not like any other now to be
found or manufactured, as hard and heavy
as iron, but with good evidence Of having
been made from soft, plastic material, hard
ened by heat or otherwise. 1t is nearly. il
the form Of basin, with part of the un
Io- -, k~nk 1T and xpharA tho rln /
broken of it shows the process Of formatioT
on the wheel, like pottery. In the ca ,
the basin are what Catholics think al IRE
ligious emblems Of the cross and the trinity
inducing them to call it a very ancien
baptsmal font, but of this cannot feel sat
is6ed. | think it is a combination Of stone
and iron, and belongs to an art that has lonI
been lost. 1t was plowed up in Hodgdon,
town joining Houlton, sold to a Mr.. Whit
for one dollar, and bought by its presen
owner for two dollars. Some have conjcc
tured from its similarity to a mammotl
mushroom that it might be petrifaction o
the coal period, but the laws ofevegetatior
are too much violated it its form for that
and again this is not a,coal region.


Psmaquid Point


is place on the coast of Maine where som
think the Mortimer made a settlement
Some ancient traces Of stone wall, pave
streets, and walls are found, but not in I
condition to be identified with certainty
The facts need more careful scrutiny.


Near Newcastle is the mysterious ban
of oyster shells covering two acres or more
thirty feet deep. The deposit is on or nea
tide water, but there are now no oyster
within several hundred miles of the place
What race or nation made this one grea
pile of shells, where they got them, or whO
they did with so many, it is useless to con
lecture. M. r. KEEP


Dalton, AroOstOOk Co., Me.


| For tha VpaunaT FAuuvp