Illustration of Arrow Points.-----------------

Implements of stone are of course abundant. But men, when in the culture
of the Stone Age, having a common material to work upon, and under the
pressure of common needs, have everywhere provided similar forms. For
this reason it is hard to find distinctive points of difference between
implements of stone of Mound Builders' work and a series of similar
implements the work of Indians. We are assured, however, that when
examining a series of each, those of the Mound Builders display a
superior finish.<87> The preceding wood-cut represents a collection
of arrow-points found in the mounds, but they are not particularly so
distinguishable from specimens found on the surface. Great numbers of
arrow-points are occasionally found on altars. Here we have a view of
one of the stone axes fashioned by the hands that heaped the mounds. It
is certainly a very fine specimen.

Illustration of Ax found in a Mound.------------

The Mound Builders must have had all the varieties of stone implements
common to people in their stage of culture, such as axes, fleshers, and
chisels. They also must have possessed mortars and pestles for grinding
corn, and some implements did duty as hoes and spades. We represent in
a group a collection of weapons and implements from the mounds and stone
graves of Tennessee. All these articles are finely finished. One of the
axes has a hole bored through it. One of them is further provided with
a stone handle, and is characterized as being the "most beautiful and
perfect stone implement ever exhumed from the aboriginal remains within
the limits of the United States."

Illustration of Weapons of Stone from Tennessee. (Smith Inst.)--

People in the culture of the Stone Age make but very rare use of metal,
as metals are to them simply varieties of stone, much less useful for
their purpose than the different kinds of flints, except for ornaments.
From the altar mounds, near Cincinnati, were taken ornaments of silver,
copper, iron and traces of gold, all of which had been worked into their
present shape by simply hammering. The iron, it should be remarked, was
meteoric iron, which can be hammered as easily as native copper. We have
already remarked that about the only native iron is obtained from such
sources. Copper was utilized for a great variety of purposes.

Illustration of Copper Ax.-------------------

We give a cut of a copper ax found i