278 ETHNOLOGY. 



the " dart'' is referred to in conueetiou with tlie use of the shield ; but 

 whether this " dart" refers to spears headed with such implemeDts as 

 w'e have described in this chapter, or to the lance-heads described in 

 Chapter VI, it is impossible to say. Probably to both; the lance-head 

 pattern being the more usual form of the "dart" referred to by Loskiel.* 

 Several reasons have already been given in Chapter VI why lance- 

 heads, or those long, leaf-shaped implements we have designated as 

 such, were used iu battle, and it is evident that since they served a 

 double purpose, as implements of the chase and weapons of war, so, too, 

 these hunting-spears were available in battle. 



Chapter VIII. 



nsniNG-SPEAES. 



In every collection of Indian relics, there will be found a few speci- 

 mens of a certain long, tapering form of " arrow-head," which we desig- 

 nate "fishing-spears," and we propose to describe them as a separate 

 and distinct form, fashioned for the ijarticular purjiose implied iu the 

 name given them. 



The form iu question is comparatively rare in the fields or associated 

 with other weapons or implements of the chase, but quite common on 

 the shores and in the beds of those fishing-localities that are nearest to 

 known sites of ancient Indian villages ; hence the name chosen — fishing- 

 spears. They are abundant in the Delaware River, in the shallower 

 pebble-bottomed portions of the stream, but usually broken ; the same 

 is the case at Crosswick's Creek, near Trenton, N. J. 



Figure 48 represents what may be taken as the type of this class of 

 hunting-implements. With the exception of the loss of the extreme 

 point, the specimen is perfect. Less than three-fourths of an inch in 

 width at the base, it measures four inches in length, and is a.s long, for 

 its width, as any example of fishing-spear that we have seen. The shape 

 itself, as it seems to us, would scarcely suggest any other use than that 

 of fishing. Its adaptability for the purpose is admirable. Of hard min- 

 eral, sharply edged, acutely pointed, and well stemmed, to insure safe 

 attachment to the shaft, it meets every requirement for spearing rock- 

 fish, shad, herring, gar, chub, or even young sturgeon, all of which were 

 abundant in the Delaware, in the bed of which stream this implement 

 was found. 



Figure 49 represents a good-sized fishing-spear, which formerly we 

 looked upon as an arrow-head. It is admirably chipped from a bluish- 

 gray mineral, nuich resembling true flint. Occasionally such a specimen 

 as this is met with in the inland localities where relics are found ; but 

 it is unquestionably a form used almost exclusively in spearing fish. We 



*[Iu Loskiel's original work, published in German, (Barby, 1789,) nothing is said 

 txhont darts. The passage runs thus: "As defensive weapons thoy used shields made 

 of hard buffalo skin, convex on the outer side for keeping off the arrows of the enemy." 

 (P. 183). The dariH are an addition of the English translator.— J. II.] 



