SMITHSONIAN AKCII^OLOGICAL COLLECTION. 6 



typical articles. In many instances it cannot be determined whether an 

 object was designed for use or for ornament. 



In order to classify the numerous articles composing the archaeological 

 series, it was necessary, of course, to arrange them under different heads; but 

 in consideration of their too often doubtful mode of application it cannot be 

 asserted that the specimens represent in all cases the characters attributed to 

 them by the titles under which they have been classed. Nor does the division 

 into two groups intended to illustrate different periods warrant absolute 

 exemption from errors, considering that a number of the articles embraced in 

 the archaeological series may have been made after the arrival of the Cau 

 casians in North America, especially such relics as are derived from districts 

 inhabited by tribes that became in comparatively recent times acquainted with 

 the manufactures and commodities of the whites. Yet, after due considera 

 tion, the system here adopted seemed better calculated to exhibit the former 

 and present state of the aborigines than any other arrangement presenting the 

 whole available material under one general aspect. 



By far the greater number of specimens in the archaeological department 

 are manufactures of stone, being fashioned cither by flaking or the more 

 tedious process of chipping, or by pecking, grinding and polishing. The 

 chipped series chiefly comprises arrow and spear-heads, cutting and scraping 

 tools, saws, perforators, and digging implements. These articles are usually 

 made of hard silicious stone of conchoidal fracture, such as hornstone, jasper, 

 chalcedony, ferruginous quartz, and other kindred varieties, all of them occa 

 sionally comprised in these pages, for the sake of brevity, iinder the general 

 term &quot; flint,&quot; though the real cretaceous flint, which has played such an impor 

 tant part in the prehistoric ages of Europe, does not seem to occur in this 

 country. Many arrow and spear-heads consist of the common white quartz, 

 and some are made of different kinds of stone of inferior hardness. The 

 volcanic obsidian is represented by a beautiful series of Mexican knives and 

 cores, and by arrow-heads, etc., derived from regions north of Mexico. Some 

 Indian tribes still arm their arrows with points of obsidian. In the manufac 

 ture of ground and polished weapons, tools and ornaments, the aborigines 

 employed every kind of stone, both hard and soft, suited to their purposes. 

 Grooved axes, celts, adzes, pestles, etc., are very frequently made of varieties 

 of greenstone, a substance which, being hard as well as tough, was well fitted 

 to withstand rough use. Some drilled and highly finished ceremonial weapons 

 are made of the hardest silicious materials, showing that the aborigines were 

 in this respect in advance of the prehistoric races of Europe, who scarcely 

 ever attempted to drill stone of such hardness. Quartzite, sandstone, serpen- 



