The grooved axe is as widely distributed throughout the United States as the celt, and the form varies quite as much. Axes of the following localities may be differentiated: New England, the South, the Cliff-Dweller country, the Ohio Valley, the Wisconsin-Michigan region, Pennsylvania. In all of these sections there are certain types of axes not found elsewhere. The first incentive to the native in making a grooved axe was to obtain an implement of practical service, and which could be securely fastened in the handle. That was his primary object. Otherwise he would not have used grooved axes at all, but confined himself to celts, chisels, and gouges. Axes are of all sorts. There is the very rough chipped axe of slate, or chert, or limestone which it is almost impossible to decide whether it was a digging-tool, or something to be used in quarrying, or a defensive tool, or for domestic purposes. Certainly, the very rough axe with dull edges could not be made use of in felling trees, in making canoes, or anything of that sort. The small light axes with sharp edges, such as are common in various portions of the United States, were doubtless used as hand-hatchets and carried on hunting or war expeditions, just as were the polished stone hatchets referred to on a previous page. As to the various forms of axes, I do not believe that form in a stone axe carries the significance that form does in problematical stones, pipes, or chipped implements. Axes are seldom, if ever, found in mounds or graves. Celts do occasionally occur in burial-places. But axes, more than celts, were utility tools, and do not, to my mind, carry any significance as objects made use of in ceremonies. Naturally, the larger axes required special care in lashing them to handles of hickory, or oak, or other pliable woods. It is quite likely that small straight limbs were cut off near a knot, an aperture hollowed-out in the knot, and the celt or other object inserted. We know that the New England tribes made bowls of the knots taken from trunks of maples, and that these bowls were firm and lasted for a considerable length of time. It was a slow and laborious process, the hollowing-out of these knots, but we are advised by early writers that the Indian accomplished it. Clubs of hard wood, with a knot at the end, are favored weapons among the aborigines all over the world, and it is quite likely that in America ancient man made use of them and inserted small celts. [Illustration: FIG. 248. (S. 1–1.) The ordinary grooved hand-hatchet shown here is from the collection of J. J. Snyder, Frederick, Maryland. The edge is moderately sharpened; the upper part shows the work of the stone hammer. I present the specimen full size. There are thousands of this form in the United States, and they are typical general utility tools, and also served as weapons. The size is convenient, the specimen is light. ]