136 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 93 



wide, and only 15 nmi in thickness. In the latter regard it approaches 

 the knife blades in type, but it is the lower edge rather than the sides 

 that shows both the most careful retouching and the greatest wear. 



Work in Bone 



Two fragments of scapula hoes, probably bison, were found in 

 house I. Both fragments indicate that the broad edge of the original 

 tool had been sharpened, and both show evidence of much handling 

 and wear. They are too fragmentary to tell much about their original 

 shape. 



Only one complete and one broken bone awl were found here (pi. 18, 

 fig. I, /, g). The complete specimen is 87 mm in length and has been 

 fire-tempered, especially toward the point. The small awl fragment is 

 split from a section of larger bone and is broad, tapering sharply to a 

 point. From the curve of the bone it seems possible that above the 

 break the bone was complete, forming a round handle. The specimen 

 is also well tempered by heat. 



Besides five fragments of smooth, polished bone, brown from tem- 

 pering by fire, only one other bone artifact was found. This is a 

 small, delicate needle or bodkin. It is round in cross-section and has a 

 groove around the butt end. The point is broken off, and the artifact 

 is brown and polished from use and heat tempering. The groove 

 around the butt was evidently added after the artifact was tempered, 

 since it shows no evidence of extreme heating. No other bone nor any 

 antler artifacts were found in house i, and their scarcity is remark- 

 able considering the relative abundance of other artifacts. 



Work in Shell 



Three shell spoons (pi. 11, fig. i, a, d, e) came from this house. The 

 most ornate of these (pi. 11, fig. i, e) came from cache i. Like the 

 other two, the shell is a fresh-water bivalve (species not identified), 

 but the present specimen is decorated with rather faintly incised lines 

 suggesting the wing and head of a bird. The shell has been cut down to 

 form the head of the bird, which also forms the handle of the spoon. 

 The neck and body are separated by a sharply incised line suggesting 

 the gills of a fish ; the long feathers of the wing are suggested by 

 faintly incised longitudinal lines ; and the head, which has a rounded 

 nose or beak, is indicated by an incised circle for the eye and an incised 

 line for the mouth. The incised decoration is all on the outside of the 

 artifact. The spoon shows signs of considerable use and the lower 



