274 Description of part of Wyoming Territory. 



are often broken in such a way that they appear as spawls from rude 

 implements of art, or even resemble the latter. Some of them are 

 certainly the work of primitive man, but the vast proportion, often 

 scattered over miles of surface, are j)robably accidental forms. These 

 I suppose to have been produced by stones striking one another in the 

 descent from declivities, as they have been carried down, perhaps, by 

 glacial movement. The softer rocks of the buttes, those which are too 

 soft for stone works of art, are also observed broken in the same way 

 as the hard ones. In experimenting on some large splintered slabs of 

 jasper, from the buttes of Dry Creek Canon, I found that a quick 

 l)low of a hammer would send off, with a ringing sound, a long, sharp 

 flake, reminding me of the primitive knives or scrapers of the stone age 

 of man. 



Between the well finished implement and the accidental spawl every 

 gradation of form may be observed among the scattered stones of the 

 plains and buttes. 



Many of the accidental forms, as well as those more nearly resemb- 

 ling artificial implements, if they are not actually such, appear greatly 

 to differ in age. Some of the specimens are as sharp and fresh in 

 appearance as if but recently shivered from the parent block, while 

 others are so much worn and so deeply altered from exposure, that 

 they look to be of ancient date. In some of these old looking speci- 

 mens, the jasper, originally brown or black, has become dull white and 

 yellow, the depth of one fourth of an inch from the surface. 



[In this relation I may take the opportunity to refer to one of the 

 simplest of stone imjilements still in use, and which, if it had alone 

 been found among the flaked materials of the buttes, would certainly 

 have been viewed as an accidental spawl. During my stay at Fort 

 Bridger the Slioshone Indians made a visit to the post, and encamped 

 in its vicinity for a week. Being the first time I had an opportunity 

 of seeing a tribe of Indians, I felt much interest in observing them. 

 While wandering through their camp I noticed the women dressing 

 buff;ilo-skins with a stone implement, the only one of this material I 

 found in use among them. A serrated scraper of iron was also 

 employed, but the stone implement was clearly a common and import- 

 ant one. It was a spawl from a qaartzite bowlder, made by a single 

 smart blow with another stone. It is circular, or oval, plano-convex, 

 and with a sharp edge. The implement, according to Dr. Carter, who 

 is quite familiar with the language and habits of the Shoshones, is 

 ■called by them a " teshoa." By a happy accident I learned that it 

 was not a mere recent instrument, incidental to the time and place. 

 While on an excursion after fossils, in company with Dr. Carter, I 



