884 



PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



It is also iu these game districts that what is known as the " bevel- 

 edge arrow- points " are found, that have been a subject of uauch discus- 

 sion as to their use. Foster says of the one he has illustrated : " The 

 specimen represented is from Professor Cox's collection, and the two edges 

 are symmetrically beveled, as if to give it a rotary motion." I have met 

 many others that accept this idea, unmindful of the fact that a ship is 

 not steered at its stem, but by the rudder, at its stern, and an arrow is 

 not directed or held to its course by its point, but by the feather at the 

 butt end of its sliaft ; and if a rotary motion was required it would natu- 

 rally be given by placing the feathers spirally arou'id the shaft. The 

 broat flat sides of these beveled points would neutralize any effect from 

 the short bevels iu passing through the air. 



I have heard it urged that they were reamers, and that the uniform bevel 

 being in one direction, to cut as reamers they would have to be turned to 

 the left, or, as our workmen say, "against the sun." From this it has 

 been argued that the people who used them belonged to a left-handed 

 race. The direction and uniformity in the bevels is to me evidence of 

 exactly the reverse. Among all the points we find they are the simplest 

 and easiest to form by chipping when laid on their flat. Nothing but the 

 down pressure of flaker is required to separate a chip from a flat at a 

 45degree angle. Suppose a flake that had been roughly shaped held 

 flat on a block of wood by the fingers of the left hand, the tool in the 

 right hand chipping from the point to the broad end by direct down 

 pressure ; then by turning the flake over and working the other edge 

 in the same manner, we have in a center cross-section a form resemb- 

 ling a loag-stretched rhomboid with sharp cutting serrated edges at 

 the acute angles. 



Colonel Long said that 2 inches was the greatest length of stone 

 arrow-heads that he found in use among the Indians ; that all longer 



c o 



Fig. 8 



not used for javelin and spear-heads were strongly hafted and used as 

 cutting implements. This was confirmed by Catlin. It is more where 

 and under what circumstances we find a stone tool than the tool itself 



