""^Jo!"'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 191 



antiquity. To secure a knife of the larger variety the employment of 

 a stone of considerable size is necessary to allow for the waste in work- 

 ing, and this fact should not be overlooked in determining the true 

 character of certain forms of primitive work found in the district and 

 elsewhere. 



In confirmation of these conclusions, attention is asked to Nos. 

 146589 to 146616, forty-five pieces from various fields of the district and 

 vicinity. Also Catalogue Nos. 146572-146604, U. S. National Museum, 

 a tray of thirty-four pieces from the same fields. 



These three exhibits comprise the various materials commonly em- 

 ployed for chipped implements, and in each substance the methods of 

 treatment, as discovered from the unfinished implements, serve to em- 

 phasize the primal forms of the knife or arrowhead as it emerges from 

 the i)ebble or rock in mass. In many cases the untouched crust of the 

 pebble shows here and there on the face of the unfinished piece ; in 

 some the work is only begun ; in others it is nearly finished ; in most 

 cases abandonment of the original intention is suggested, if not actually 

 ajjparent. But on the other hand, many of these apparently unfinished 

 pieces are as well calculated in their present form, if not better, to 

 serve certain purposes than if more finely wrought; so that the separa- 

 tion of the finished from the unfinished implements can not be effected 

 with any great degree of exactness, a rough and jagged point of stone, 

 set in the knotted end of a club adds more to the savage effectiveness 

 of the weapon than a polished stone would, though formed for the same 

 purpose. But the same jagged point with a few well-directed touches 

 can be reduced to a cutting tool, capable of many uses, yet it is quite as 

 much a finished i^iece in the first form as in the last. This again sug- 

 gests the futility of accepting form as indicative of antiquity in the 

 line of chipped stone implements, especially when it is seen that the 

 ruder forms are constantly repeated and perpetuated in the latest efforts 

 of the stone worker. 



The persistent survival of essentially primitive types, under the press- 

 ure of changed conditions, also adds an element of confusion to the 

 labor of classification. 



In the Eay collection from the Hupa Reservation,* jasper knives 

 are shown that were found in actual use in 1885. The form of the blade 

 is identical with the leaf-shaped knife of the Potomac. The hafting is 

 effected by setting the butt of the blade in the slit end of a short pine 

 stick and the liberal use of pitch. In some instances the handle is 

 formed of two pieces lashed together, and in one specimen of this kind 

 the lashing used is ordinary cotton twine. The aboriginal conception of 

 the implement remains unchanged, though the bit of cotton string unites 

 it to the present with startling effect, 



A suggestion the reverse of this is found in a curious thing set down 

 in Smith's account of the relations existing between tlie Jamestown col- 



Trof. OtisT. Masou, Siuitbsouian Report, 1885, Part 1, pages 205-239. 



