THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 385 



flakes to fly off. It is possible that certain kinds of hard stone may be 

 chipped in this manner but the whole process would be so difficult 

 that not one out of a hundred attempts would be successful. Heat 

 ■sufficient to cause chipping by the application of cold water will 

 granulate the stone and destroy its conchoidal fracture. Flint baked 

 in the fire will easily pulverize. The man who states that the fire 

 and water process was possible ought to demonstrate it by producing 

 one arrow point. While he is making one another person who knows 

 that arrow points were chipped with small stone hammers and flaked 

 with bone tools might produce from a dozen to one hundred points 

 by way of demonstrating the method employed by Indians and other 

 borigines, quite generally. (For methods, see Chipped implements). 



Skinning stones. Ungrooved axes, celts or hatchet heads were 

 designed to be mounted in handles and used for chopping. Speci- 

 mens have been found mounted in handles, both in ancient deposits 

 and in the possession of modern Indians. A few may have been 

 intended for hand hatchets. The term " skinning stone " probably 

 was applied by white hunters who found an Indian stone hatchet 

 head, particularly a well-polished specimen, useful as a blade for 

 pressing back the pelt of an animal in skinning it. 



Tempered copper. The copper obtained by the Indians in ancient 

 times was from nodules found in the drift or from layers of the 

 metal found in seams of ore rock. It was pounded into shape on 

 anvils of stone and beaten into form, in some instances at least, in 

 wooden molds. To give greater maleability some aboriginal copper 

 workers seem to have heated the metal. The finished article was 

 rubbed on stones and in sand until the desired polish and the edge 

 were achieved. Native copper implements are never '' tempered " ; 

 that is to say, none possess a hardness equal to that of iron. There 

 is no wonderful *' lost art of tempering copper." No specimen of 

 tempered copper made by Indians in precolonial times exists in any 

 museum, and no person acquainted with metallurgy has ever seen 

 such a specimen. The belief in '' tempered copper " is a pure myth. 



Mound builders. The builders of mounds were Indians whose 

 descendents were still living at the period of colonization. Explor- 

 ers in the Mississippi valley witnessed the erection of mounds. 

 Nothing' found in the mounds so far examined has revealed any- 

 thing that the historic Indians did not have or could not make. The 

 mound-building period ended at about the time of the coming of the 



