With regard to the date of the aforesaid objects of man’s handiwork, it may here be stated that none of them are very recent, and that only the simpler forms, such as some of the arrow-heads, scrapers, and skewers, were made within the last four or five hundred years. There can be little doubt that most of them were made many centuries ago; although, of course, many of them may have been used in more recent times by the aboriginal successors of their manufacturers. THE PLAINS OF WESTERN AND CENTRAL CANADA In the region of the great plains between Lake Superior and the Rocky Mountains the prehistoric artifacts differ greatly from those of eastern Canada. Here are many earthworks of the ancient mound-builders, some of which have yielded characteristic mound products, differing considerably from the stone-age relics of the East; and in this region also are found large numbers of grooved hammers and mauls rarely found in Ontario and Quebec. In Ontario the stone “celt” or wedge is very common; but in Manitoba, with the exception of the extreme eastern part of the province, the celt is practically absent. With its decline and disappearance farther west, and especially towards the borders of Saskatchewan, the grooved hammers appear in great numbers, and in a great variety of forms and sizes. Stone discs and grooved axes likewise occur on the plains. Another stone tool absent from Manitoba is the amphibole gouge, of which well-formed, beautiful specimens occur in Ontario and farther east. 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.