THE MUSEUM. 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. II. 



ALBION, N. Y., AUGUST 15, 1896. 



No. 10 



Notes from the Mohawk's 

 Country. 



p. M. VAN EPI'S. 



(VIII.) 



R.\MBLES IN AN ARROW-HEAD AND OTHER 

 TOPICS. 



Now before me I have the base of 

 an unnotched pentagonal arrow-head 

 picked up on the flats of the Mohawk. 

 This arrow-head fashioned from yel- 

 low jasper is of a very rare form with 

 its five corners; it had five corners 

 when perfect but minute veins of 

 quartz running through the jasper have 

 given it an opportunity of breaking, 

 about two-thirds of its length remain- 

 ing. The breakage has happily dis- 

 closed a small geode lined with minute 

 quartz crystals. This minature grotto 

 is located about midway on the line of 

 fracture and when examined with a 

 glass of low power becomes a veritable 

 Alladin's cave with its intricate pass- 

 ages lined and studded with knobs and 

 bosses of glittering crystals. With 

 long and close examination one can 

 easily imagine himself of lilliputian 

 size traversing and wandering through 

 these diminutive halls whose sparkling 

 corriders appear endless. Only Rusk- 

 in or Jules Verne could properly de- 

 scribe this illusion. 



Such veins of quartz and other min- 

 erals occuring in the material from 

 which arrow-heads and other primitive 

 objects were made have been respon- 



sible for many unfortunate breakages 

 and it sometimes happens that an in- 

 closed fossil or cast of former life has 

 occasioned the same damage, for it 

 must not be forgotten that most of our 

 so-called flint consists of limestone sili- 

 cified 01 changed, having often the 

 form of its contained fossils yet intact. 

 I have a shapely arrow-head with reg- 

 ular outline of gray-blue flint measur- 

 ing 2.', inches in length but broken in 

 two parts and from this very cause, an 

 inclosed organism, in this case a sec- 

 tion of an encrinal column piercing 

 the flint of the arrow-head in its longer 

 direction, hence the breakage at that 

 particular place was partly due to the 

 want of cohesion between the sections 

 or joints of the silicified encrinite 

 stem. To judge from the diameter of 

 the inclosed encrinal column, the ar- 

 row-head was made from flint occur- 

 ing in limestone of the Trenton period, 

 which abounds in the vicinity. Flint 

 chips and implements perfect and 

 broken showing imprints or containing 

 silicified shells, corals and the like are 

 frequently found on our ancient camp- 

 sites and work-shops, I might also 

 mention an implement of red flint — 

 probably a knife or skinner — found in 

 central Missouri which shows beauti- 

 fully, numerous encrinal joints. This 

 specimen would adorn equally well the 

 cabinet of the paleontologist or anti- 

 quarian. 



A very curious fact in connection 



