OBSERVATIONS ON STONE-CHIPPING. 



875 



and came from certain localities wbere the cbert of the best quality was 

 (juarried in sheets or blocks, as it occurs in almost coiitinnous seams in 

 the intercalated limestonesof theCoal Measures. Tliese seams are mostly 

 cracked or broken into blocks, that show the nature of the cross fracture, 

 which is taken advantage of by the operators, who seemed to have re- 

 <luced the art of tiakiiig to almost an absolute science, with division of 

 labor; one set of men being expert in quarrying and selecting the stone, 

 others in preparing the blocks for the tlaker. This was done when the 

 blocks were nearly right-angled at the corners, by striking off the corner 

 wiiere the flaking was to commence, and, with a i>roperly directed blow 

 with a hard pebble stone, knock off of the upper edge a small flake, mak- 

 ing a seat for the point of the flaking tool. Sometimes these blows were 

 carried entirely across the front upper edge of the block, making a groove 

 entirely across the edge, when the tirst row of flakes have been thrown 

 off. It is the work of this operator to prepare seats for a second row, 

 and so on. What was meant by almost absolute science was a knowledge 

 and skill that would give the proper direction to the 

 pressure to throw off" the kind of flake required. Fig. 

 - rei)resents, as nearly as I recollect, the rude sketches 

 made of the flaking tool used to throw off" massive flakes, 

 when a sudden percussive pressure was required in ad- 

 <lition to the imi^ulsive pressure the man could give. 

 The staffs of these flaking tools were selected from young 

 hard-wood saplings of vigorous growth. A lower branch 

 was utilized, as shown at a in Fig. 2, to form the crotch 

 in which the blow was struck. Another branch on the 

 opposite side, «, was used to secure a heavy stone to 

 give weight and increase the pressure. When the stone 

 to be flaked was firmly held, the point adjusted to give 

 the pressure in the required direction, the staff" firmly 

 grasi)ed, the up})er end against the chest of the oper- 

 ator, he would throw his weight on it in successive 

 thrusts, and if the flake did not fly off", a man standing- 

 opposite would simultaneously with the thrust give a 

 sharp blow with a heavy club represented in cross- 

 section h in Fig. 2, it being so shaped that its force is 

 downward close in the crotch. It has been represented 

 to me that a single blow rarely failed to throw off" the 

 flake, frequently the entire depth of the block of stone, 

 sometimes as much as 10 or 12 inches. The tooth or 

 tusk of the walrus was highly prized for tips of the flakers. 



What I have thus far written is at second hand, being merely recollec- 

 tions of conversations at various times with the parties I have referred 

 to, and more recently with a man who for over thirty years had been 

 connected with a fur company, and who had lived most of that time 

 among the Indians, and much of it, as a trapper. 



Fig. 2. 



