81 



various stones, in many cases showing hardly any work 

 upon them with the exception of providing a cutting 

 edge, are thus brought into the group, it must not be 

 taken for granted that all the stone knives of the pre- 

 historic races were of this rude character. 



Many beautiful cutting implements have been found in 

 various countries, especially in North America. School- 

 craft, in his extended work on the Indian tribes, figures 

 several fine specimens, notably the one represented on 

 plate 45, figures 1 to 3 (vol. ii), found at Hartford, Wash- 

 ington County, N. Y., which he states to be carved from a 

 piece of green serpentine. This knife is somewhat sickle 

 shaped, five and three-quarters inches long, with a curved 

 triangular blade descending from a well formed rounded 

 handle. Schoolcraft also figures (vol. ii, pi. 49, fig. 4) 

 a cutting implement with a blade five and three-quarters 

 inches long by an inch in width. The figure shows a 

 thickened portion answering for a back or handle. This 

 specimen was found in Geuesee Co., N. Y. The drawing 

 is, however, very poorly executed and the description is so 

 brief as to leave us in doubt as to the exact character of 

 the implement. The specimen figured on his plate 50, 

 figures 5 and 6 (vol. ii), under the title of "fragment of 

 a blade of a battle-axe," and described as made of sili- 

 cious slate, is far too thin and fragile an 'implement for 

 a battle-axe, and is more likely another form of slate 

 knife, perhaps having two symmetrical blades, through 

 the centre of which (the figure shows a broken groove, 

 which may represent a hole drilled through the centre of 

 the blades) a wooden handle was inserted. 



Squier and Davis in their work on the "Ancient Monu- 

 ments of the Mississippi Valley," comprising the first of 

 the splendid series of monuments in honor to James 

 Smithson, under the title of the "Smithsonian Contribu- 



