HOLMES] CHARACTER OF THE KEJECTS 57 



been able to learu that the primitive iuhabitauts of the Potomac regiou 

 often used flakes such as were takeu from these objects, either in their 

 original form as cutting' or scra])ing tools or in the mannfactnre of 

 projectile points, scrapers, and drills; nearly all specialized (juartzite 

 implements are fairly thick bodied and substantial. The great rarity 

 of typical core shapes on these shop sites should also be noted as indi- 

 cating the probability that ordinary high-peaked specimens are mere 

 accidents of blade-making operations. 



In some cases large bowlders have been broken and flaked in such 

 manner as to suggest the notion that the detached pieces were intended 

 to be used in imi)lemeiit making; but howsoever this may be, much 

 experience has taught me that irregular masses of (piartzite are much 

 more diflicnlt to manage — to reduce to the symmetric blade — than are 

 the bowlders when the latter are of convenient size. It is different 

 with more brittle materials, which may be worked up to good advantage 

 from the angular mass. 



In my very careful and prolonged eftorts to determine the abject of 

 the quarry-shop work and the character of the product I studied the 

 numerical relations of the various forms of rejectage with excellent 

 results, which may be given in some detail. 



In shaping imj)lements by flaking there are necessarily failures at 

 all stages of the work from beginning to end, as already shown, and 

 these failures are susceptible of groui)ing into four classes: The first 

 class includes tested bowlders, rejected in early stages of the work 

 because of unfavorable material, adverse fractures, flaws, etc, which 

 occur in countless numbers on the site; the second stage includes 

 those considerably worked on one side and rejected because of i>alpa- 

 ble defects developed or brought out by that work; the third group 

 includes such specimens as were flaked somewhat fully ou both sides 

 before it became apparent that further ettbrt was useless; and the 

 fourth class comprises the well-detined leaf-like blade. Xow it was 

 found by study of the shaped refuse that breakage under the heavy 

 blows of the hammer took place at all stages of the work, and that 

 nearly as many failures had resulted from breakage into halves or 

 approximate halves as from imperfectly developing contour. I found, 

 however, by segregating and comparing the varieties, that one group of 

 halves had no corresponding group of unbroken forms, and I concluded 

 that this group of halves represented the true quarry product. 



The observations may be formulated as follows (the first series — the 

 tested bowlders — being omitted because they were practically innu- 

 merable): In the first trench I found, of the second class («, plate xvii), 

 380 whole specimens and 400 halves; of the third class {(>), 250 whole 

 specimens and 320 halves; and of the fourth stage (/>), no whole speci- 

 mens and .'>80 halves. The latter were halves of comparatively thin, 

 well-shaped blades, and were not represented by any whole lilades of 

 like proportion's. In other words, there were 380 half blades of a 

 grade of advancement supei-ior to that of the best entire blade. From 



