318 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 60 



by a iimnber of writers. Father Morice, the learned student of the 

 western Dene, furnishes the folknving account of their \York : 



TIk' niiitei'ial chosen in iiroforenee to fashion arrow or spear lieads with was 



loose, broken pieces of the rock, such as were found on the 

 ir>(ne] surface. Of course, these were contined to a few localities 



only, wherein were situated sorts of quarries which were 

 vi-ry jealously ^aiarded against any person, even of the same tribe, whose right 

 to share in their contents was not fully established. A violation of this tradi- 

 tional law was often considered a cdsiis belli between the co-clansmen of the 

 trespasser and those of the proprietors of the quarry. 



Tlie lii-st o])oration consisted in roughly blocking off with a hard stone the 



pieces of the flint, the removal of which was necessary to 

 r Stone Flakof] obtain a vague resemblance to the intended weapon. Then 



grasping the flint lengthwise with the closed fingers of the 

 left hand (lig. 44), the arrow smith carefully pressed off the flakes with an 

 elongated stone lield in his right hand until the desired form and finish were 

 obtained. A piece of buckskin served as a pad to protect tlie hand against the 

 asperities of the point. 



I owe these details to an old chief who has been an eyewitness to tlu' opera- 

 tion. I should add that in not a few cases a moose molar tooth replaced the 

 long chipping stone. I know also of a very few points the sharp edges of wliicli 

 have been polished off liy friction.^ 



Mr. II. C. Duh)g published in Forest and Stream a brief account- 

 of pressure chipping by the Indians of Clear Lake, 



Clear I^ake, Cnli- / 1 1 j? n 



f„rnia ^=^1-' ^^ f oHoWS : 



Tlie old expert put on his left hand a piece of buckskin with 

 a hole cut in it to let the thumb pass through, something like the "palm " used 

 by sailmakers. This was, of course, to protect his hand while at work. In his 

 r^ght hand he took a tool of bone ground down to a l)lunt point. These tools, 

 made often from the leg bone of a deer, are assorted in sizes, large ones being 

 used for coarse work and small ones for fine work. A piece of ol)si(lian of the 

 right size was held in the U'lt hand, then the right thumb was pi-essed on the 

 top of the stone, while the point of the bone was strongly pressed against the 

 uniler edge of the proposed arrowhead and a little splinter of obsidian worked off. 



Numerous ex})lorers have obser\'ed and recorded the flaking i)r(ic- 

 esses as i)racticed among the Eskimo. The stone is broken up and 

 the forms roughed out in the usual maimer with stone hammers. The 

 s])ecializing work is done with well-made implements of bone, nntler, 

 and ivory, usually of highly specialized type. A typical example is 

 illustrated in figure 181. 



ISIurdoch, an exceptionally discriminating observer, writes as fol- 

 lows of the flint working of the Eskimo of Point Barrow : 



These people still retain the art of making flint arrow and spear heads, and 

 other implements, such as the blades for the skin scrapers, to 



[Eskimo] I>e hereafter descril>ed. IMany of the flint arrowheads and 



spear points already described were made at Nuwuk and 



Utkiavwin especially for sale to us and are as finely formed and neatly finished 



1 Morice, Notes on the Wi-stern D(^n(^s, p. G^k 



" Quoted Iiy Mason, North American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers, p. G58. 



