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Expedition involved in a journey by land, after the wreck of the 

 Peacock, from the Columbia river to San Francisco.* 



A blow with a round-faced stone repeated upon a mass of jasper, 

 agate, or chalcedony, until a flake was broken off of a suitable form, 

 and which exhibited the right kind of fracture; then the edges were 

 chipped by the application of a notch in a piece of horn, applied as a 

 glazier applies the notches in the side of his diamond handle to the 

 edge of a pane of glass for a like purpose. The notches were of dif- 

 ferent sizes and depths, and much practice was doubtless requisite to 

 insure success ; as in the localities which furnished the material, or 

 where it was worked (many of which spots have been examined), 

 large quantities of flakes, and broken and unfinished spear and arrow- 

 heads are found, proving that many of the efforts were abortive, and 

 no exact form or certain result could emanate from even practised 

 hands. 



From specimens observed, it may be presumed that the flaking 

 was begun at the base of the implement and finished at the point 3 

 at least, such an inference may be drawn from the appearance of 

 certain specimens in the cabinet of the writer. 



The forms of arrow-heads are very much varied : some were made 

 without notches or barbs, and are usually called war-arrows ; they 

 were attached to the shaft by cement of resinous gum, which, when 

 withdrawn, would of necessity leave the head in the wound. Others 

 made with barbs or notches were secured by tendon lashings, in many 

 instances put on with extreme neatness and symmetrical interlacing. 



There is no limit to the variety of forms which these stone spear and 

 arrow-heads assume. Many of them were rude and rough as the coarse 

 hornstone of which they were made, in fact mere splintered fragments; 

 whilst others, on the contrary, are as perfect in form as the weapon 

 of the classic Greek, and made of the most beautiful jasper or chal- 

 cedony, almost gem-like in its beauty of color and shading. 



There are instances of forms that lead to the conviction that 

 novelty is one of the rare things of this world, as Solomon knew and 

 told us long ago; this allusion is pointed to arrow-heads constructed 

 with beveled faces, so formed as to cause revolution in their flight, 

 and thus maintain a true direction ; a well-known principle employed 

 in the modern rifle. 



A crescent form, though rare, is not without examples ; evidently 

 intended for the decapitation of birds or a wider range of efiiciency. 



* Mr. T. R. Peale, of the Scientific Corps, U. S. Exploring Expedition. 



