890 PAPERS EELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



and projecting. Celts and fleshers made of the carboniferous limestones 

 have the silex skeletons of their fossils sharp and clearly marked. 



From the location at the first ripple of the Sabine as a fishing point, 

 the proximity of the salt-licks for the larger game, no doubt the place 

 was frequented, if not permanently occupied, by the last of the Indians 

 in this section, who have left their stone implements scattered broad- 

 cast over the country. They had lost value by the introduction of the 

 nailers iron points, the rifle, knives, and the usual stock of the Indian 

 trader. Had not this paper extended far beyond my original intent, 

 I could give an accumulation of evidence of the rapid decline in the art 

 of flaking stone. 



From a mechanical stand-point, it is hard, if not impossible, to recon- 

 cile the accepted evolution of works of the stone age from flaked to 

 ground and i^olished implements. It is true that specimens are found 

 in all stages of progress from rough flak© to polished implements in 

 America as well as in Europe. But here in America, where the true flint 

 is absent, a greater range of stone has been resorted to, and what we 

 find flaked and afterwards ground and polished are mostly cutting tools, 

 such as chisels, gouges, &c., of chert, jasper, or fine-grained quartzite 

 that will maintain a kec^n cutting.edge. 



For axes, either plain or grooved, the water- worn pebbles of gTeenstone, 

 granite, or porphyry have mostly been selected. For fleshers, softer 

 stones are common, such as limestone of various qualities, steatite, oc- 

 casionally cannel coal, and the harder shales of the coal measures have 

 been used for these wedge-shaped implements. But let the material be 

 what it may, the pecking with a hard stone on a water- worn pebble, often 

 found nearly of the required shape, to modify and bring it to a cutting- 

 edge ready for grinding, by simply rubbing with sand and water on a 

 flat stone, only required labor, patience, and perseverance, but not the 

 knowledge and skill requisite to split off the flakes, nor the judgment, 

 steady hand, and correct eye to shape them Into the exquisitely sym- 

 metrical forms we find them. 



I am not writing on or questioning the evidence of the antiquity of 

 man, but simply on the instruments and tools he would naturally resort 

 to, in his primitive state, to sustain life when depending for food, on 

 the waters for fish, the earth for fruits, seeds, nuts, and roots, and on 

 the chase for animals, not only for food, but, what was most essential 

 for his comfort, skins for clothing, sinews, bone, and horn for innumer- 

 able uses. With the aid of a sharpened pebble (stone ax) he could at- 

 tack a forest tree, and by the aid of fire shape its wood to his uses. 

 Most probably scraping came in advance of cutting, and what could be 

 better adapted for this purpose than the sharp edges of fractured flint 

 pebbles ? 



With the wooden bow and arrow arose the necessity for an arrow- 

 point harder than wood. If bone was used, the pebble scraper was es- 

 sential. The river drift or gravel bars, when subjected to the grinding 



