34 THE INDIANS OP CAPE FLATTERY. 



brought to an edge by means of files, and finely sharpened on stones ; they are 

 always two-edged, so as to be used as daggers. The handles are of bone riveted, 

 and* sometimes ornamented with inserted strips of brass or copper. As they are 

 experienced in the use of heat, they are able to temper these knives very well. The 

 chisels are made of rasps, or of any kind of steel that can be obtained. Some 

 times they take an old axe, and, after excessive labor, succeed in filing it in two, 

 so as to make as it were two narrow axes ; these are then heated and forged into 

 the required shape, and handles attached similar to that shown in Fig. 16. They 

 are not all carved alike, but the mode of fastening the iron to the handle is the 

 same. The instrument for boring holes in the canoes to receive nails or wooden 

 pegs is simply an iron or steel wire flattened at the point and sharpened ; this 

 wire or gimlet is inserted into the end of a long stick which serves as a handle ; 

 and the manner of using it is to place the point of iron on the spot where a hole 

 is required, and then roll the stick briskly between the palms of the hands. 



Knives somewhat resembling a round-pointed cobbler s knife are also used, the 

 end being bent into a hook. This tool is used in carving, or for work where a 



Fig. 15. Fig. 16. 



Stone adze. Chisel. 



gouge would be required, the workman invariably drawing the knife toward instead 

 of thrusting it from him. All the native tools are made to operate on this 

 principle. Cutting with a knife of any kind, or with a chisel, is done by working 

 toward instead of from the person, and it is only when they get hold of an old 

 plane that they work as white men do. They also make knife-blades from half an 

 inch to two inches long, which are inserted into wooden handles, and used either 

 for whittling or for scarifying their bodies during their medicine or ta-ma-na-was 

 performances. Some of them have managed to procure hammers and cold chisels 

 from the various wrecks that have been thrown on the . coast from time to time ; 

 and the wreck of the steamer Southerner, in 1855, about 30 miles south of Cape 

 Flattery, afforded a rich harvest of old iron and copper, as well as engineer s tools, 



