FLINT KIUGE PRODUCTS. 



171 



He gives six reasons for this belief, but an examination of the objects 

 themselves would show that he is in error. That some might have 

 been used as scrapers may be true, but very few are suited for such 

 work, and not one shows the least mark of wear that could result from 

 this use. 



The specimens in the Bureau collection, with perhajjs half a dozen 

 exceptions, are from the aboriginal quarries at Flint ridge, in Licking 

 county, Ohio, oi of the material so abundant at that place. 



All are small, few being of a size to furnish flakes over three inches 

 long. The flakes were un- 

 doubtedly struck off by means 

 of stone hammei's, hundreds ot , 

 which are to be found about the 

 quarries, or removed by pres- 

 sure, many showing the bulb of 

 percussion, others being per- 

 fectly smooth on the flat face. 

 Usually all the flakes were ob- 

 tained from only one side of the 

 core until it became too small 



to work ( tigure 2()1). Occasionally they were chipped 

 from opposite sides, leaving the core of a conical or 

 cylindrical shape (as represented in figure 262). 



Cores and finely chipped implements of the Flint 

 ridge stone have been taken from the mounds in 

 Kanawha valley, West Virginia, and Scioto valley, 

 Ohio, showing that the mound builders are to be 

 credited with at least a part of the great amount of 

 work done in those localities; but it seems a mis- 

 take to say, as some authors have done, that the 

 "turtlebacks" found in caches in southern Illinois 

 are from the same source, as the stone is entirely 

 diflerent, and occurs abundantly in the vicinity in which the specimens 

 are found. 



Flakes 



The use to which were put the narrow, thin flakes so abundantly found 

 in many parts of the world has caused some discussion. Schoolcraft 

 says that the Dakota bleed patients by scarifying with these flakes; or 

 sometimes one is fixed into the end of a piece of wood, held over a vein, 

 and driven in as far as the wood will let it go,' the use being similar to 

 that of the modern fleam. Harpoons iu the Kurile islands are made of 

 bone, with a deep groove along each side; in these grooves thin and 

 sharp flat flakes are fastened with gum.^ According to Evans, similar 

 flakes were used for scraping,^ just as broken glass is used among mod- 



• Indian Tribes, vol I, p. 253. 

 ^Nilsson ; Stone A^e, p. 46. 



* Stone Implements, p. 256. 



Fio 262— Core. 



