SPEARHEADS. 45 



out into a flat point without any notches (Plate IV, 

 figs. 1, 3, 6). Most of the specimens seem to be of this 

 latter kind. The users of these spearheads were prob- 

 ably in the habit of sharpening them by chipping off 

 flakes on the beveled edges, whenever these would be- 

 come blunt, for in some of the specimens that seem to 

 haVe been much used, the point tapers very slowly at 

 first and then rapidly toward the base, the whole edge 

 presenting a concave outline instead of a convex one 

 (Plate IV, figs. 2, 3). The edge may originally have 

 been made straight, and sharpened by flaking "after- 

 ward. The same is also indicated by the nature of the 

 edge itself. The largest of the spearheads wei-e four 

 inches in length and one and three quarters of an inch 

 in width. 



Aichaeologists have found it difflcult to establish a 

 precise distinction between arrowpoints and spear- 

 heads.* Some of the above described specimens may 

 have been used for large arrows. The cliief difference in 

 the use of the spear and the arrow was that the former 

 was thrown from the hand while the latter was impelled 

 by the bow-string. Both were used in warfare and in 

 chase. The spear was probably also used in fishing. 



Dr. Thomas Wilson, who has made a special study 

 of the bevel-edged spearheads, states that in their dis- 

 tribution these flints are conflned to the interior part 

 of the United States and to the South. He also regards 

 it as evident that the beveling was intended to make 

 the missile rotate in its flight, and notes that this 



* Arrowpoints, Spearheads, and Knives of Preliistoric Times by Thomas Wil- 

 son, An. Kept. Smith. Inst., 1897, p. 889. 



