132 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
Lisburne, and quotes accounts of methods pursued among the native 
Mexicans, and the Shasta Indians of California. Another, and in 
some respects more minute description of the process, in use by 
the Wintoon Indians, is furnished by Mr. B. B. Redding, in the 
American Naturalist, from his own personal observation. The 
artificer was Consolulu, the aged chief of the Wintoon Indians, and 
the material, as among the Shasta Indians, was obsidian ; but the 
process is equally applicable to flint ; the cleavage of which is nearly 
similar. His implements consisted of a deer-horn prong split length- 
wise, four inches long, and half an inch thick, with the semicircular 
ends at right angles; two deer-horn prongs, one smaller than the 
other, with the ends ground down nearly to the shape of a square 
sharp-pointed file; and a piece of well-tanned buckskin. thick, soft, 
and pliable. Laying, as we are told, a lump of obsidian, about a 
pound in weight, in the palm of the left hand, he placed between the 
first and second fingers of the same hand the semi-cylindrical deer- 
horn implement, so that the straight side of one of the ends rested 
about a quarter of an inch from the edge of the block of obsidian 
With a small waterworn stone, in his right hand, he struck the other 
end of the prong, and a flake of obsidian was severed well adapted 
for the arrow-head. On the buckskin, in the palm of his left hand, 
he laid the obsidian flake, which he held in place by the first three 
fingers of that hand, and then took such a position on the ground 
that the left elbow could rest on the left knee and obtain a firm sup- 
port. Holding in his right hand the larger of the two pointed 
prongs, and resting his thumb on the side of his left hand to serve as 
a fulcrum, he brought the point of the prong about one-eighth of an 
inch within the edge of the flake; and then, exerting a firm down- 
ward pressure, fragment after fragment was broken off until the edge 
of the arrow was made straight. As all the chips came off the lower 
edge, the cutting edge was not yet in the centre of the side. But 
the arrow-maker rubbed the side of the prong repeatedly over the 
sharp edge, turned over the flake, and, resuming the chipping as 
before, brought the cutting edge to the centre. In a similar manner, 
the other side and the concave base of the arrow-head were finished. 
The formation of indentations near the base for the retention of the 
tendons to bind the arrow-head securely to the shaft, apparently the 
most difficult process, was in reality the easiest. The point of the 
arrow-head was held between the thumb and finger of the left hand, 
