IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF THE STONE AGE. 121 



jasper, agate, chert, or flint, any of which stones will 

 serve the purpose, and used at once without any other 

 preparation. Such flakes occur in millions in the old 

 European caves and kitchen-middens, in the vicinity 

 of the chalk districts, where excellent flint nodules are 

 so abundant that the old savages could be prodigal 

 of knives. They are also very abundant on ancient 

 Indian sites in America, though it is often impossible 

 to distinguish those intended for use from those 

 thrown away in the preparation of more elaborate 

 chipped implements. Nor can they always be dis- 

 tinguished from the chips broken by frost from 

 siliceous rocks untouched by human hands. Such 

 flakes, while the first, are probably also the last, stone 

 implements used by man. The Mexican barbers at 

 the time of the conquest shaved their customers with 

 such flakes, and the old Egyptians and Jews used 

 them in surgical operations at a time 

 general civilization had attained to a 

 of advancement. 



But flint is susceptible of much hig 

 ped by the skilful hand of the prac 

 it took the form of triangular, tanged, and leaf-shaped 

 arrows and spears, of saws and knives. The forms of 

 these are of the same plan throughout America with 

 very little variation, and these forms are those also of 

 Europe so much so that a tray filled with European 

 arrrow-heads cannot be distinguished from a tray of 

 American ones. It will be quite unnecessary, there- 

 fore, to enter into any description of them. I may 



