FLAKED AND CHIPPED STONE. 



2, Irregular Flakes of Flint, Obsidian, etc,, produced by a single blow,- 



Some may represent cutting tools of the most primitive kind. 



OBSIDIAN KNIFE AND NUCLEUS (i). 



3, Two-edged narrow Flakes of Obsidian and prismatic Cores or Nuclei, 

 from which such Flakes have been detached by pressure (Figs. 2 and 3, 



Mexico). The mode of manufacture of these flakes or knives has been des 

 cribed by some of the early Spanish authors on Mexico. 1 Obsidian breaks 

 like the cretaceous flint of Europe, and hence the Mexican knives are identi 

 cal in shape with the neolithic flint knives found in the countries bordering on 

 the Baltic Sea. 



4, Pieces of Flint, Quartz, Obsidian, etc,, roughly flaked, and either 

 representing rude tools, or designed to be wrought into more regular 

 forms. Unfinished Arrow and Spear-heads, 



5, ArrOW-heads, They are the most abundant aboriginal relics in the 

 United States; but being chiefly made of hard and brittle silicious materials, 

 they were easily damaged in hitting the object at which they were aimed, and 

 many of them consequently bear the marks of violent use. Yet perfect speci 

 mens are by no means scarce. The art of arrow-making survives to the 

 present day among certain Indian tribes inhabiting parts of the United States 

 not yet settled by whites, and the National Museum contains a large number 

 of modern stone arrow-heads (partly in shafts) which equal, and even surpass 

 in workmanship, the best specimens picked up in fields or recovered from old 

 Indian burial-places. The modes of their manufacture have been witnessed 

 and described by explorers, and these operations now appear less difficult 

 than they were formerly supposed to be. 



A classification of the arrow-heads with regard to their chronological de 

 velopment is not attempted, and hardly deemed necessary. North American 

 Indians of the same tribe (as, for instance, the Pai-Utes of Southern Utah) 



The fullest account is given by Torqucmada (Monarquia Indiana, Seville, 1C15). The Aztec artisan, he 

 states, dislodged the obsidian flakes from the block by pressure, employing a large wooden T-shaped imple 

 ment, which acted somewhat in the manner of a punch, the cross-piece resting against the chest. A trans 

 lation of Torquemada s description is to be found in E. B. Tylor s &quot;Anahuac,&quot; London, 1861, p. 331. 

 Motoliuia makes similar statements, which, it is believed, have not yet been quoted in English works. 



