155 



arrow and spear heads and tomaliaAvk points, apparently 

 is onl/ in size, and that the dividing line between them 

 is not easily deternained. 



2d. The form of the blade or body of these appears to vary 

 between the triangle and ellipse. 



3d. Among the specimens obtained from twenty town- 

 ships in Massachusetts, Vermont and New- York, there ap- 

 pears to be no form 'peculiar to any of the localities — 

 yet, -as the proportion between the various forms in the different 

 localities is by no means the same, there was evidently some 

 preference, perhaps arising from the nature of the material used. 



4th. The arrow and spear heads from Georgia, South Caro- 

 lina and Louisiana, are oftentimes serrated at the edges, and 

 have occasionally a spiral turn given to their extremities ; 

 they are also often thicker and of a clumsier structure. 



5th. In the material of which they were made, with a few 

 seemingly fanciful exceptions, preference was given to some hard 

 and tough variety of stone, of a compact structure, having a con- 

 choidal,or roundish fracture, which Avould enable them the more 

 easily to form the central ridge, and thus add strength to the blade. 

 The kind of stone out of which by far the greater portion of 

 those found in the Connecticut valley were made, appears to be 

 a bluish hornstone. This is believed by many to have been 

 obtained from Mount " Kineo," a huge mass of hornstone on 

 the borders of Moosehead lake, N. H. In the eastern part of 

 Massachusetts, porphyry was almost exclusively the material. 

 In the South, burr stone was the principal material. 



6th. The process of manufacture. If, as is generally believed, 

 the aborigines, (those which are included under the name 

 "Indian,") previous to their intercourse with the whites, 

 possessed no metallic instruments, (copper possibly excepted,) 

 their implements, ornaments, &c.. must have been made by 

 stone tools. It is past comprehension, how the savage Indian, 

 with such rude implements, could have fashioned these stone 

 points to a degree of perfection, that no artist could excel, i£ indeed 

 he could equal, with all the aids of civilization at his command. 

 By examining a series of these points, in all degrees of progress 

 towards perfection, we find that he began with a pebble, or else 

 a fragment of stone of many times the area of the arrow head, 

 that he had in view, doubtless with the object of preventing 

 injury to the embryo arrow head, from the first rough chip- 

 pings, which, from the half-finished specimens and the numer- 

 ous chippings to be found in many localities, were, on an 

 average,i,(when the material was close at hand) of an inch in 

 length, and a third to half an inch in width. After having 



