120 Cruise of the "Alert" 



towards his waist, he made steady pressure against the fractured 

 edge of the glass, so as to make small chips flake off from the 

 edge towards the smooth side surface. In effecting this he was 

 able to use great force, because, while the left hand, which held 

 the glass, was supported rigidly against his chest, the manner in 

 which he held the fashioning tool enabled him to bring the whole 

 strength of his wrist to bear upon the edge of the glass. After 

 having bevelled off one side of the edge, he turned the glass round 

 and bevelled the other side in a similar manner. Having once 

 imparted a double bevel to the edge, he was easily able, by operat- 

 ing on each side alternately, to reduce the substance of the margin 

 in any one place until the glass had assumed the outline required. 

 Proceeding in this way, the formation of the barbs and the recess- 

 ing of the base for the ligature which would secure it to the shaft, 

 were effected to all appearance with the greatest facility. The 

 most difficult part of the business was now the formation of the 

 fine point, as the chipping and flaking had to be conducted with 

 the greatest nicety. However, after half-an-hour's steady work, 

 he triumphantly produced a spear-head two and a half inches long, 

 and of the form shown in the annexed sketch. The arrow-heads 

 are made in the same way, and are about one inch in length. 



We had the chipping operation repeated on many subsequent 

 occasions, and by various individuals, and found that all adopted 

 the same method ; the essential feature of which was that the 

 fashioning of the glass was effected entirely by pressure, and that 

 no striking implement was used. I induced one of the men to 

 try an old flat file, instead of his own chipping instrument, but he 

 soon discarded it ; however he found a blunt-edged ship's knife 

 very convenient for giving the finishing touches to the point of 

 the spear-head. With the experience gained from the Fuegians, 

 I soon learnt to turn out very fair imitations of their work ; and 

 after practising on various kinds of glass, I found that the easiest 

 to work with was black bottle-glass, and the most difficult plate- 

 glass. Green pickle bottle-glass is about a mean between the 



