HOLMES] PROCESSES OF FLAKING 61 



into iiiuileiueiits may have been selected for transportation, but no 

 evidence of this is procurable. 



The course of i^rocedure just described 1 have investigated in the 

 most careful manner, and by experiment have followed every step of 

 the process, and have achieved almost every result. I have found that 

 in reaching one final form I have left many failures by the way, and 

 that these failures duplicate, and in proper jyroportions, all the forms 

 found on the quany sites. I was unfortunately prevented from carry- 

 ing out these experiments as fully as desirable by j)ermanently disabling 

 my left arm in attempting to flake a bowlder of very large size. 



I further find by these experiments — and the conclusion is a most 

 important one — that every implement resembling the iinal form here 

 described, and every blade-shaped projectile point made from a bowlder 

 or similar bit of rock not already approximate in shape, must i^ass 

 through the same or nearly the same stages of development, leaving 

 the same wasters, whether shai)ed today, yesterday, or a million years 

 ago; whether in the hands of the civilized, the barbarous, or the savage 

 man. 



It may be well here to define with some care the apparent limitations 

 of the classes of procedure concerned in the manufacture of flaked 

 tools. Direct or free-hand percussion by means of unhafted or hafted 

 implements is the natural method of reducing large amorphous masses 

 to something approximating the special shapes reached in the advanced 

 stages of the art. It was probably the leading method utilized in very 

 early times; but this process, even in the most skillful hands, has its 

 limitations in certain directions. For example, blows can not be given 

 with sufficient regularity to produce great symmetry of outline and 

 desirable uniformity of flaking; and, again, when imjilements under 

 treatment become attenuated, the sharp blow is extremely liable to 

 shatter them. The skill of the artificers being equal, these limitations 

 vary with the degree of brittleness and homogeneity of the material 

 used. 



Quartzite is extremely refractory, and the skill of the workman must 

 have been tried to the utmost to carry the manufacture by the free- 

 hand process to a stage of elaboration where the other methods would 

 be operative. It is possible that some method employing indirect per- 

 cussion may have followed that of direct percussion. By indirect 

 percussion I mean the use of two tools, one the hammer and the other 

 the punch, the latter being set on the exact spot to receive the impact 

 or blow, thus eliminating the element of uncertainty characteristic of 

 the free-hand blow, although necessarily lacking in percussive power. 

 By one or both of these methods the blades were carried to such a 

 degree of symmetry and attenuation that the artist was able to employ 

 pressure to advantage. Then, by skillfully using a bit of bone or 

 antler, he could carry the tool to the highest possible degree of spe- 

 cialization and finish. That the latter method was employed by the 



