270 ETHNOLOGY. 



aud oue-balf iuches iu width ; the longer specimeus are usually tbe 

 more slender ones, suggesting the possibility of the broader and shorter 

 specimens having had a different use from the others ; but whether for 

 war or hunting, the larger, more slender slates appear to us to be the 

 more effective weapon. 



In no one of these lance-heads have we met with any deep notches in 

 tbe sides, near the base, indicating whereby they were attached 

 to hafts or handles, as is shown in an English specimen figured by 

 Jewitt. Speakingof this specimen, he says,* " It will be noticed that its 

 sides, as they begin to diminish, are deeply serrated for fastening with 

 thongs to a haft or handle." One si^ecimeu in our collection has a 

 single deep notch, presenting the appearance of having been purposely 

 made, in chipping tbe specimen, but it is within one and tbree-fourths 

 iuches of the point, and the lance-head itself measures five and one- 

 half inches in length. Many of these slate lance-heads are weather- 

 worn, the faces produced by chipping being very nearly obliterated. 

 Such worn specimens are associated with the less-worn and sharply, 

 edged ones, and are supposed to be older specimens, discarded in con- 

 sequence of the loss of the extreme point or the edge being dulled, and 

 replaced by newer and better ones. The abundance of these lance- 

 heads may be judged from the fact that in an area of not over one hun- 

 dred acres in extent we have collected more than three hundred perfect 

 specimens, besides a great number of fragments. 



There is a curious fact to which attention is called with reference to 

 these pieces of lance-heads, viz, that fully 95 per cent, of these frag- 

 ments are the iwinted halves of the specimens, their excellent state 

 of preservation showing that they were broken off while the weapon 

 was comparatively new. So unusual is it, in our own experience, to 

 find the basal half of a lance-head, that we have sometimes thought it 

 possible these so-called broken lance-heads were in reality not frag- 

 ments, but purposely fashioned for war-club teeth, as was suggested 

 with reference to one of the forms of chipped jasper under the heading of 

 '' Hatchets." 



As these points of lance-heads are very abundant in some limited 

 localities, it may be that they were broken in battle, and that tbe owner 

 of the lance retained the handle with the base still attached, to be re- 

 headed. If such were the case, of course the battle-field would have 

 about the proportion of points to bases, i. c, 95 per cent. 



Figure 35 1 represents the largest and finest lance-head that has ever 

 come under our observation. It measures eleven and one-quarter inches 

 in length by but two and seven-eighths inches in width, and is placed at 

 the head of the list of this class of specimens on account of its size and 

 symmetry. 



Of the history of this magnificent specimen we know nothing, further 

 than that it was presented to the East India Marine Society, at Salem, 



*Grave-Mound8 and their Contents, London, 1870, p. 117. 

 tOmitted from the illustrations. 



