NORTH AMERICAN STONE IMPLEMENTS. 



407 



There is, however, another somewhat different class of Korth Ameri ■ 

 can flint articles, which, as I believe, were employed by the aborigines 

 for scraping and smoothing wood, horn, and other materials in which 

 they worked, or perhaps, also, in the preparation of skins. They resem- 

 ble stemmed arrow-heads, which, instead of being pointed, terminate in 

 a semilunar, regularly chipped edge. It is probable that they were 

 partly made from arrowheads which had lost Fig. 6. 



their points. Schoolcraft gives in Fig. 3, of 

 Plate 18, in the first volume of his large work, 

 the drawing of an object of this class, calling it 

 "the blunt arrow or Beekmil', (Algonkin,) which 

 was fired at a mark." It is likely enough that 

 these articles served in part the purpose as- 

 signed to them by Mr. Schoolcraft. Yet, I 

 have in my collection several in which the 

 rounded edge is worn and polished, while the remaining part retains its 

 original sharpness of fracture, a circumstance that can only be ascribed 

 to continued use, and therefore leads me to believe that they were em- 

 ployed in the manner already indicated. These implements hardly could 

 be used without handles. Fig. 5 represents, in natural size, one of my 

 specimens, which was found on the surface near West Belleville, Saint 

 Clair County, Illinois. The material is a yellowish-brown flint. The edge, 

 it will be seen, is perfectly Fig. 7. 



scraper-like. Inserted in- 

 to a stout handle, this ob- 

 ject would make an ex- 

 cellent scraper. The edge 

 of this specimen is not 

 polished, but it seems as 

 if small particles of the 

 edge had been scaled off 

 by the pressure exerted 

 in the use of the imple- 

 ment. In the original of 

 the above full-size rep- 

 presentation. Fig. 6, on 

 the contrary, the curved 

 edge is rubbed off to a 

 considerable extent and 

 perfectly polished, while the portion opposite the edge bears not the 

 slightest trace of fi-iction. This specimen, which consists of a whitish 

 flint, was found in Saint Clair County, Illinois. In Fig. 7, lastly, I 

 represent, in natural size, a fine large specimen, which I class among 

 the implements under notice. I formerly supposed it to be a tool des- 

 tined for cutting purposes, but the condition of the edge, which is rather 

 blunt and hardly fit for cutting, afterward induced me to change my 



