14 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



those of the west. A few New York arrows rival those of Oregon 

 in size, though not in delicacy. When the stone used is considered 

 the difference is more obvious. Form and material may both aid in 

 determining what people visited New York in early days. In a 

 representative and ample collection from this state, where the locality 

 of the specimen is clearly and correctly recorded, as it always should 

 be, later critical study of this kind may establish facts now unknown, 

 regarding early migration and trade. 



Celts, gouges and pestles were often made of local pebbles, but 

 those of basalt and striped slate may show a different origin. Gor- 

 gets, tubes, ceremonial stones and amulets often do the same. Native 

 copper implements of course come from afar, and sheets of mica do 

 not naturally occur here. Steatite, as fragments of vessels, is also 

 found abundantly, hundreds of miles from any quarry, and other 

 like things will appear in due time. 



All flint implements are not arrows or spears, however much they 

 may resemble them at first sight, and thus a lack of observation and 

 distinction has led to errors. It is not long since Sir John Lubbock 

 said that there were no scrapers here, whereas many forms are abun- 

 dant in New York alone, some of them precisely like those used by 

 the Eskimo now. They simply had not been observed or reported. 

 A very large proportion of implements termed arrows or spears are 

 really knives. They never could have been shot or thrown with 

 precision, they are so bent or one-sided. Many drills have also been 

 called arrows; and in fact articles often grade into each other, or 

 unite characteristic features. Drill, knife and scraper may appear 

 in one implement, and a writer in early days said of western arrow 

 points, ' if no knife is at hand, they use them also to skin the animals 

 they have killed.' They would answer well. 



While there are many gradations, or variations of form, in the 

 flint implements found in New York, few typical examples have 

 been found or described which are without representatives here, 

 unless it be in some massive forms. Farther observation may supply 

 these, and perhaps even others. On the other hand, some notable 

 types appear here as yet undescribed. These should have due 

 prominence. 



