186 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



resented, as is every epoch of prehistoric man in that country ; and that 

 specimens of nearly every standard implement or object tending to 

 show the civilization of the prehistoric man of that country and epoch, 

 are here displayed. The same thing is true with regard to the other side, 

 which represents the United States. I have not trenched upon any of 

 the disputed questions concerning our prehistoric races, and have only 

 sought to divide the implements and objects according to function and 

 treating the United States as a whole. I have attempted in this case a 

 classification of the stone arrow or spear-heads, or knives. I have 

 sought to make but few classes with the lines deeply drawn, so as to be 

 easily recognized and the divisions well understood. 



CLASSIFICATION OF ARROW-HEADS, OR SPEAR-HEADS, OR KNIVES. 



LEAF-SHAPED. 



Sub-class A. — Thin and finely chipped implements of the form of a 

 laurel leaf, elliptical and pointed at both ends. They correspond sub- 

 stantially with the French Solutreen type of the Paleolithic period of 

 the Stone -Age. 



Sub-class B. — These may be thicker and ruder than Sub-class A. 

 Some are more oval, and the bases are not pointed, but are either 

 straight or convex. This class includes the leaf-shaped argillite imple- 

 ments found by Dr. Abbott in the Delaware gravels at Trenton, New 

 Jersey. 



Sub-class C. — Long, thin blades, with nearly straight edges, more like 

 a dagger or poniard. The base may be either convex, straight, or con- 

 cave. Many of them show traces of attachment to a handle by means 

 of bitumen or gum. They are peculiar to the Pacific Slope. 



TRIANGULAR. 



This class includes all forms approaching a triangle, whether the 

 bases or edges be convex, straight, or concave. They are without 

 stems, and, consequently, without shoulders, but in some specimens the 

 concavity of the base produces barbs. 



STEMMED. 



This class includes all varieties of stems, whether straight, pointed, 

 or expanding, and all varieties of bases and edges, whether convex, 

 straight, or concave. 



Sub-class A, lozenge shaped. 



Sub-class -B, shouldered, but not barbed. 



Sub class G, shouldered and barbed.* 



* Nearly all of these convex bases are smooth, as though they had been worn. The 

 purpose or cause of this is unknown. 



