ARROWPOINTS, SPEARHEADS, AND KNIVES. 



951 



Fi^'. 3 ill this plate represents a liandk' for a similar blade, wbieli is, 

 however, missing. It is made of walrus ivory, the groove in which the 

 blade has been inserted being plainly seen. 



Fig. 194 represents one of the thin leaf-shaped blades from Wyoming. 

 It is of agatized wood, is very thin, and lias been linely chipped. One 

 edge is more convex than the other and is much the sharper. Com- 

 pared with the Ulu knife (Plate 44, fig. 1), no reason appears why a 

 similar handle would not make it the same knife. 



Plate 45 shows a series of common arrow or spear heads w hi<;li have 

 been inserted and wired in handles 

 by the author. The handles vary 

 from G inches in length down. They 

 are intended to illustrate the propo- 

 sition wliich has been herein pre- 

 sented — that with long handles 

 they are arrows, with longer han- 

 dles they become spears, while with 

 short handles they become knives, 

 and tlie distinction is only recog- 

 nizable by the handle. 



No attempt has been made in the 

 foregoing arguments to show a dif- 

 ference, except in the handle, of the 

 implement used as a spear or arrow 

 and its use as a knife. The an- 

 nouncement is made as a working 

 hyi)othesis that the average stone 

 arrowpoint or spearhead collected 

 throughout the country as an In- 

 dian implementorweapon mayliave 

 been either spear, javelin, arrow, or 

 knife, dependent upon the kind of 

 handle employed. 



There are other imi»lements of the 

 same material and manufacture, but 

 with variations of form, which are 

 not, and were never intended to be, an(»w or spear ]iea<ls. These, when 

 viewed in profile from either the side or edge, show that they could not 

 have served as piercing implements or weai)ons. Their edges are on the 

 sides and not at the points, and tliey could only have been used for cut- 

 ting and not for piercing, and were, therefore, knives. Plates 4G and 47 

 present specimens of this class. They are here presented in side and 

 edge views to show this peculiarity, for viewed from the side only they 

 appear as ordinary leaf shaped implements worked all round to an edge. 

 The points are not sharp, and it is doubtful if they could ever pierce any 

 resisting substance, projected with whatever fince. The impossibility 







I.EAr-SllAI'KI 



Fig. 194. 



BLADE OF AliATl/RIi \V< 



Wyoming. 



N'.iti.ral si/..-. 



