304 ETHNOLOGY. 



margin of the back. The back itself is but seven-sixteentbs of an inch, 

 in thickness, and tapers to a blunt point at the ends. The blade is 

 only one-fourth of an inch thick where it joins the back, and from thence 

 tapers to a very fine and really sharp edge. The edge is uniformly 

 sharp throughout its whole extent. Taken as a whole, it is the best 

 example of a skinning-knife we have met with, and its shape indicates 

 its use as unquestionably as does the most symmetrical arrow-point sug- 

 gest the use of the bow. 



Although centuries have elapsed since its last use, it is still available 

 for separating animal skins from the carcass, and comparatively little 

 was gained in substituting for it a metallic knife. It is the only speci- 

 men of this pattern we have found ; not even fragments referable 

 to this form have been gathered among the thousands of relics found in 

 the same neighborhood. 



Squier and Davis figure* a cutting-instrument somewhat like the pre- 

 ceding in general appearance, and remark : " A variety is occasionally 

 found in the Eastern States, of which figure 170 is an example. They 

 are sometimes composed of slate, and are of various sizes, often meas- 

 uring five or six inches in length. They are very well adapted for flay- 

 ing animals and for other analogous purposes." 



Figure 115 is a remarkably pretty example of a skinning-knife of 

 totally difi'ereut shape and character, being a long, slender stone, edged 

 at one end, instead of on the margin of one of its longer sides. The 

 illustration will convey a better idea of the specimen itself than can any 

 description. The specimen is a hornstone pebble, beautifully polished 

 over the greater portion of its surface. One end is blunt, as though 

 abruptly broken off, but is now equally well polished with any of the 

 other parts. From this blunt end, the width of the specimen gradually 

 increases, with about a correapondingdecrease in thebreadth or thickness 

 for the distance of an inch, when the width decreases by a beautiful curve 

 more marked upon the upper margin, which margin becomes the edge 

 at the descent of the curve, continuing vso until it joins the straighter 

 portion of the lower outline of the specimen. The blade, or edged end 

 of the knife, is slightly bent, or, at least, has that appearance, from the 

 edge not being in a line with the middle of the thickest portion of the 

 implement. If the specimen is held with the straighter side {lower side^ 

 in our description) up, then the blade is bent to the right and has just 

 the proper " twist" to most readily sei)arate the skin from the muscles. 

 On experimenting with this knife, in skinning a lamb, we found that when 

 once an incision was made in the skin, the detaching, by breaking 

 away the thin connective tissue, was easily done, but that the edge was 

 not sufliciently sharp to cut a tendon or the skin itself. When used in 

 deer-skinning, by the Indians, no doubt the flint-knife was brought into 

 play in incising, as, in our experiments with this knife, we found that 



• Anc. Mon. Miss. Valley, p. 215, fig. 107. 



