64 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



base. Some convex sided arrow-heads, as has been said, are drawn 

 out into a slender point, suggesting a perforator, and there are rude 

 specimens, perhaps used for temporary purposes. One of these 

 forms, not rare, is a slender splinter of hornstone, triangular in sec- 

 tion, and chipped so as to present three faces on the shaft. In such 

 cases the base is sometimes left unaltered. 



While perforators are widely distributed, from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, their most ornamental development seems to have been in 

 Missouri, where they grade into animal forms. This gives counten- 

 ance to the idea that some may have been used merely as ornaments, 

 a remark which will not apply to all. 



SCRAPERS 



The typical scraper has one flattened side, usually formed by one 

 or two broad flakings ; and another, more or less elevated or ridged, 

 which is beveled down to the other surface. It is often combined 

 with the knife or drill, especially in implements approaching the leaf 

 shape, or in distinctly curved knives. Scrapers are often very rude, 

 some being made of flat pieces of hornstone, merely chipped down 

 to a scraper edge. Sometimes other flat siliceous stones were utilized 

 in the same way, resulting in rude and unusually large implements 

 of this kind. Many were made of broken arrows, in which case the 

 under surface may be quite delicately chipped. This secondary use 

 may be the reason why they were so long overlooked here, as they 

 were not attractive articles to collect until their true nature was 

 known. 



Many of them may have been used in handles, as in comparatively 

 recent times elsewhere, but others were so large as not to require 

 these. Carved handles of horn or bone have been occasionally found, 

 but these may have belonged to other implements, as they came from 

 Iroquoian sites, and that great family knew little of stone scrapers or 

 perforators. Absence of such handles in other places, however, 

 proves nothing, as horn or bone articles quickly decayed except in 

 fireplaces and refuse heaps. It is still more likely, in a forest land, 

 that handles would have been made of wood. Small scrapers would 

 often require handles of some kind, but the larger ones might not. 



