THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 381 



edge became dulled the increased resistance caused the material 

 that it was drilling to act as a flaker and compelled a flake to fly off, 

 thereby giving a new edge. The scraper was made from a large 

 chip, flaked so as to be bevelled on one side like a chisel, ^lany 

 scrapers were made from broken arrow and spear points. It was 

 sometimes fastened to a handle and used to scrape w^ood, bone and 

 skin. The different forms of spearheads and knives and arrow 

 points grade into one another, often making it impossible to name 

 the exact use of a particular specimen. Perhaps they were used to 

 a considerable extent interchangeably. Knives were of many forms, 

 the chief characteristics being the finely bevelled, sharp-cutting edge. 

 Some were made so as to fit into a handle and others to be held in 

 the hand. The spear was much longer than the arrow point and 

 designed to be fastened to a shaft. Spearheads or spear points were 

 among the most beautiful specimens of the chipper's art. They 

 have been found in abundance on sites of great antiquity, confirming 

 the theory that the arrow point is more modern than the spear. The 

 arrow point could be used only in conjunction w^th a throwing stick 

 or with a bow, and there is every reason to believe that the arrow 

 was evolved from the spear. 



The arrowhead appears in as many varied forms as design and 

 accident could create. It was made from stone, colored by all the 

 hues nature produces — red, pink, yellow, blue, green, black and 

 white — and often from quartz crystal. Different peoples to a cer- 

 tain extent had different styles and individuals often their own par- 

 ticular *' brand." The arrowhead was made for all the varied uses to 

 which a missile of its kind could be put. Special arrows were likely 

 used for large and for small game, for birds, for fish and for war, 

 but to venture to define these would be simply guess work. An 

 ingenious device was the bevel head. The cross section of a bevel 

 head is rhombo'dal. For a long time it w^as thought that this form 

 was but an accident in the method of flaking, but I am told that 

 experiments made at the Smithsonian Institution are said to have 

 shown that the bevel head flies with a rotary motion, so that it not 

 only goes more directly, but on striking an object literally bores a 

 hole into it. This seems to require further investigation, however. 

 The " fishing point " is long, narrow and slender. It was designed 

 to be shot into the water at the fish. The small points were made 

 from small chippings with a small flaker. War points are thought 

 to have been fastened loosely to the shaft so that they could not be 

 [julled out of the flesh, even thousfh the shaft were withdrawn. Blunt 



