20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 95 



The broken material from the 1935 work contains more tip ends 

 than that of 1934, although the butt ends still comprise a large per- 

 centage of the series. Most of the tip ends came from the bison pit, 

 and the inference is that they had been embedded in the flesh of the 

 animals whose bones were found there. In discussing the prevalence 

 of butt ends in the previous finds it was suggested that the circumstance 

 could be attributed to the replacing of damaged points. Many must 

 have snapped ofif in the killing of game. This is illustrated by the 

 tips in the bison pit and by the one in the vertebra. Undamaged shafts 

 were no doubt retrieved and carried back to camp to be fitted with new 

 points. The fragment of the old one remaining in the shaft would be 

 the butt end, and in the remounting process it would be tossed aside 

 to remain in the debris of accumulation. Such an explanation, of 

 course, refers only to fragments which show that they formed part 

 of a completed point ; it would not apply to butts from those broken 

 in the making. The basal portions were not always discarded, how- 

 ever, as examples in the collection show that it was not an uncommon 

 practice to take a butt which had lost its tip and rechip it so that it 

 again had a point capable of penetration. Specimens in this group 

 are extremely stubby and flat-pointed. 



There are a number of points in the collection which are not of the 

 characteristic Folsom form. One type in the variant group consists 

 of small points made from fortuitous flakes, often from portions of 

 channel flakes. None of these has the fluting ; as a matter of fact, 

 they are too thin to permit the removal of a side spall. They definitely 

 belong in the implement complex, however, and their outlines closely 

 follow the general Folsom pattern. The other type of point is repre- 

 sented by fragments only, but the pieces are so distinct in their nature 

 that they must be considered as representative of a form found in 

 the West which is frequently linked with the Folsom. This is the 

 so-called Yuma. The fragments are from the true Yuma, not from 

 any of the multitudinous subtype varieties. The typical Yuma point, 

 in the conception of the writer, is one which is long and slender. The 

 edges extend approximately parallel from the base — in some cases 

 there is an almost imperceptible narrowing toward the butt — for about 

 two-thirds of the length and then taper to a sharp point (fig. 2). It 

 is oval in cross-section (fig. 2, b). The base may be straight across, 

 slightly concave, or deeply concave. Sporadic examples have a small 

 shoulder on one or both sides near the base, thus forming a slight 

 tang (fig. 2, /). In the shaping process the main flakes were removed 

 so that the facets extend completely across the face of the blade, 

 usually at a slight angle directed toward the tip. The edges were then 



