368 



NATURE 



{Sept. 2, 1875 



time, is fully a ninth magnitude, and will be found even 

 with the Berlin chart for Hour 23 of R.A., which is by no 

 means one of the most complete of the series. Metis is 

 another member of this group of planets, at present easily 

 recognised. 



D'Arrest's Comet. — M. Leveau is continuing his 

 researches on the motion of this interesting comet, and 

 has obtained elements which represent with considerable 

 precision the observations in 185 1, 1857-58, and 1870; 

 allowance being made for the difficulty of fixing the place 

 of so faint and diffused an object, and for the magnitude 

 of the perturbations due to the action of the planet 

 Jupiter ; these perturbations are found to have changed 

 the R.A. of the comet on September 24, 1870, by -- 14°'6, 

 and the declination by + 7°-6. M. Leveau has employed 

 Bessel's mass for Jupiter, and concludes that it is sus- 

 ceptible only of very small correction. He promises, in 

 a future communication to the Paris Academy of Sciences, 

 to furnish an ephemeris for the next return of the comet 

 to perihelion in the spring of 1877. 



ON THE OCCURRENCE IN NEW JERSEY OF 

 SUPPOSED FLINT SCALPING-KNIVES 



IN glancing over a considerable series of American stone 

 implements, we quite naturally expect to find that ever- 

 present feature of the modern Indian's outfit, the scalping- 

 knife. In every collection we recognise the stone axe that 

 preceded the iron tomahawk ; the jasper arrow and spear 

 heads, now replaced by metallic ones ; while neatly edged 

 flints of various shapes give us cutting implements adapted 

 to all ordinary uses ; but not so with the scalping-knife. 

 However large the series, we cannot, at a glance, point 

 out a form of knife peculiarly well adapted for such a 

 purpose, from the several shapes before us. While all are 

 possible scalping-knives, none probably are so. This, at 

 least, has been my experience until very lately, although I 

 have constantly sought out "probable scalping-knives" 

 from thousands of implements gathered and being 

 gathered in this neighbourhood. Among the hundreds of 

 specimens of flint knives there occurred none that re- 

 sembled the modern knife, and I supposed that the stone 

 scalpers were similar — the later being modelled from 

 earlier form. 



Whether the above inference is correct or not, I have 

 at last detected some specimens that more nearly ap- 

 proach the '• ideal form," one such being the flint imple- 

 ment here figured. The result of my collecting labours 

 during the past summer amounts to about five hundred 

 specimens not including fragments, and it is among these 

 that I found the cutting implement above mentioned, 

 with several others like it, both perfect and fragmentary. 

 As the illustration shows, better than any description can 

 do, this slightly curved knife seems moderately well 

 adapted for scalping, as described by Loskiel.* He says : 

 " They place their foot on the neck of the victim, seizing the 

 hair with the left hand, and twisting it very tight together, 

 in order to separate the skin from the head ; then they cut 

 it all round with a sharp knife, and tear it off." The 

 specimen is a neatly chipped and evenly outlined jasper 

 " implement," having the edges still well defined and 

 sharp. The curved, and I presume cutting edge, is formed 

 by striking off comparatively large flakes, and is better 

 adapted to making a " clean " cut, than the straighter 

 side. The lower end, about one-fourth of the whole 

 length, is somewhat narrower, and while less sharp along 

 its edges, is thinner, and has no median ridge. This por- 

 tion, very possibly, was inserted into a bone handle as 

 modern Eskimo scrapers now are (vide " Reliquiae 

 Aquitan." Part ii. p. 14) ; and if so, we surely have, in 

 the figured implement, one that would conveniently 

 serve as a scalping-knife. In the interest of archeology 



* Mission among North American Indians. London, 1794 ; P. 149. 



I should like to experiment with this specimen, but have 

 no available scalp at hand ; my own, unfortunately, being 

 quite innocent of hair. 



There being no mineral found near here that gives off 

 long thin flakes like true flint or Mexican obsidian, which 

 latter was used for razors by the Mexican Indians, and 

 the shells of our Delaware River unios being too thin 

 and small to serve such a purpose, we must fall back on 

 the jasper and quartz pebbles of the neighbourhood for . 

 the material for such knives. 



The number of scalping-knives in use at all times must 

 have been considerable, and this fact alone seems counter 

 to my suggestion that the specimen figured may be a 

 scalping-knife, inasmuch as so very few knives of this 

 pattern have been found here. It must be remembered, 

 however, that every warrior would have his knife buried 

 with him, if not killed in battle, when the knife would 

 be lost or stolen ; and one such knife would last a lifetime, 

 so that here may be an explanation of their comparative 



rarity, the great mass of them still lying in the nearly 

 obliterated graves. Or, like smoking pipes, they may 

 have been handed down from one generation to another, 

 their peculiar use rendering them sacred in the eyes of 

 the savage ; and when buried with the other " personal 

 effects " of the dead warrior, like the buried pipes, they 

 may have been exhumed by those too lazy to make or too 

 poor to purchase for themselves. That graves were thus 

 robbed is certainly true. 



In the graves that I have been fortunate enough to 

 examine I have found cutting implements of jasper, 

 quartz, and slate ; and, twice, jasper specimens like the 

 above. These graves to which I refer are now only to be 

 detected by the presence of such imperishable relics as 

 stone implements, pottery, and by the discoloration of 

 the soil. Judging from appearances, the body was placed 

 at full length on the S7ir/ace of the ground, the weapons 

 placed with it being grouped together on the right side, 

 and a vase of rude pottery filled with a red powder at the 



