34 



present day — and with which that, to us Europeans, necessary 

 act of shaving has been efiected. Pressure too, in this case, 

 seems to have been used by means of a stick placed in a 

 particular way against the chest. (Vide " Reliq. Aquit.," Pt. 

 II., p. 16.) To give an instance, however, of the method by 

 which " flakes" are struck ofi, reference may be made to a 

 letter from the great African traveller, Mr. Baines, to the 

 editor of the " Geological Repertory," in which letter he states 

 that in Australia he has " seen an area of considerable extent, 

 say from one hundred to two or three hundred yards, more or 

 less, thickly strewn with fragments, not relics of antiquity, 

 but the refuse of recent labours in the manufacture of wea- 

 pons for the chase ;" and then he goes on to describe the 

 process of the native operator. 



In a recent communication from M. Cabot to Sir Charles 

 Lyell, entitled, " An account by an actual observer, in Cali- 

 fornia, of the process of making stone arrow-heads by the 

 Shasta Indians, who still commonly use them," we have a 

 description of the manner in which the Califbrnian Indians 

 make tlieir more complicated chipped weapons. So inge- 

 niously did an Indian, with an agate pebble, shape obsidian 

 arrow-heads before his eyes, that he says, — " In a moment, 

 all I had read of the hardening of copper for the working of flint 

 axes, &c., vanished before this simplest mechanical process." 

 (" Reliq. Aquit.," Pt. Ill, p. 17.) If, then, the pecuhar flaked 

 form be found among savage tribes at the present day, so 

 likewise is that form which has the name of " scraper " given 

 to it, which name alone sufficiently indicates the use to which 

 this peculiar form has been applied, viz., to the preparing of 

 the skins of animals for garments, by scraping off the loose 

 tissue and fat whicli adhere to the inner side of the skin. 

 The Christy collection contains some very good specimens 

 of sharpened stone " scrapers" still used by the Esquimaux ; 

 likewise by the natives of Australia for the preparation of 



