ON THE STONE AGE. 83 



carried ou aloug the follovviug routes : — Fraser Eiver Valley ; Bella Coola Valley, from 

 head of Beutiuck Arm; Skeeua River; Stiokiug River; aud Chilkoot Pass, from the head 

 of Lynn Canal. By the second of the above routes oolacteu oil was carried far into the 

 interior ; aud the old trail leading from Bella Coola aud Fraser River is still known to 

 the inland Indians as the " Great trail." Dr. Dawson adds : " All the coast tribes of 

 British Columbia are boru traders, and possess in a high degree the mental characteristics 

 generally attributed to the Jews. Those holding possession of the above routes regarded 

 trade with the neighboring inland tribes as a valuable monopoly, aud were ready to fight 

 for it. They also traded among themselves, and certain localities were w^ell-kuown as the 

 source of commodities. Thus the Haida regularly purchased oolacteu oil from the Tshimsi- 

 ans, who caught the oolacteu at the mouth of the Nass and Stiking, taking in exchange 

 cedar canoes, for the manufacture of which the Haida were celebrated. Through the 

 agency of the Tshimsians they procured the large mountain sheep horns from the inland 

 Indiaus. Cumshewa, in Queen Charlotte Islands, was, again, noted for Indian tobacco, 

 an undetermined native plant, which was an article of trade all along the coast." ' 



The old arrow-makers evidently derived pleasure from the selection of attractive 

 materials for some of their choicest specimens of handiwork. The true crystalline quartz 

 was prized for small arrow-heads, some of which are equally pleasing iu material, form, 

 and delicacy of finish. But the material most usually employed in eastern Canada, as 

 well as that previously referred to as in request by the old workers of the Ohio valley for 

 their largest implements, is a gneissoid rock of comparatively common occurrence, which 

 chips off with a broad facet when sharply struck, aud leaA'es an acute edge aud point. Iu 

 Mr. Sellers's valuable paper on the ancient workshops of Ohio and Pennsylvania, along 

 with an account of his own experience relative to the flaking and chipping of such 

 implements, he records some reminiscences of conversations on the subject,^ with Catlin, 

 the artist and traveller. In this communication he remarks : " Most of the arrow-points 

 found within my reach in Philadelphia, Delaware, and Chester Counties, Pennsylvania, 

 were chipped from massive quartz, from the opaque white to semi-transparent, and occa- 

 sionally transparent." He further describes his first chance discovery of one of the native 

 work-places. He was iu company with two scientific mineralogists, when, as he writes, 

 " we came to a place where (judging from the quantities of flakes and chips) arrow- 

 points had been made. After much diligent search, only oue perfect point was found. 

 There were many broken oues, showing the difficulty in working the material. Mr. 

 Lukins, a scientific mineralogist, collected a quantity of the best flakes to experiment 

 with, and, by the strokes of a light hammer, roughed out one or two very rude imita- 

 tions." Major J. H. Long traversed the continent westward to the Rocky Mountains, as 

 head of the United States Military Topographical Department ; and from him Mr. Sellers 

 derived information of the habits of the rude western tribes long before they had been 

 brought into direct contact with any civilized settlers. " He said that flakes prepared 

 for points and other implements seemed to be au object of trade or commerce among the 

 Indian tribes that he came in contact with ; that there were but few places where chert 

 or quartzite was found of sufficient hardness, and close and even grain, to flake well, 

 and at those places there were men very expert at flaking." ' 



' Geological Survey. 1878-79, pp. 114 B, 152 B. '' Smithsonian Keport, part i., 1885, p. 871. 



■• Smithsonian Report, 1885, part i., p. 873. 



