50 CHIPPED IMPLEMENTS. 



An allied but not identical form of implement has been collected in 

 the shellmounds of Oregon, lat. 42° 05' to 42° 15', by Mr. Schumacher. 

 Photographs of these (Peabody Mus., No 7G31), labelled "Obsidian and 

 Jasper Knives," show them to vary much in size; the largest measuring 

 fifteen inches in length, the others eight and six inches. These so-called 

 knives differ from the blades figured on Plate I in that they are pointed at 

 each end, and the largest specimen is considerably narrowed in the middle, 

 where, if a knife, it would be grasped by the hand. That these Oregon 

 specimens may be knives is very probable, although they certainly are not 

 in any way such convenient cutting implements as the smaller flints secured 

 to wooden handles; but the double pointing, on the other hand, does not 

 suggest their use as simply a thrusting weapon, or dagger. They certainly 

 may be considered as varying sufficiently from the Dos Pueblos specimens 

 to render it doubtful if the two forms were similarly used. 



Fig. 7, Plate I, has still adhering to the base, and extending upwards 

 about one inch, small scales of asphaltum, which indicate that a handle has 

 been attached to this blade. This handle I conceive to have been a short 

 one, by which, dagger-like, the point, rather than the edges, was most prom- 

 inently brought into play; or, less probably, that this handle was a staff, 

 and the complete implement used as a lance or spear. 



If these long, delicate blades were not in common use, might they not 

 have been used only on ceremonial occasions! If abundant, and the 

 occurrence of fragments would testify to this, they doubtless varied, in ac- 

 cordance with their size, as to the purposes for which they were made, 

 being a cutting implement, or a piercing weapon. Dr. Yarrow suggests 

 that they may have been used for spearing or lancing the smaller ceta- 

 ceans which abound on the coast, or that they may have been used to 

 spear the ra}ffish which are even at the present day extremely abundant in 

 the estero near La Patera. He is led to this sugg-estion from the fact of 

 finding similar implements in the wooden canoe with the skeleton spoken 

 of in his preliminary report. 



[Mr. Powers, on page 53, "Tribes of California," gives a figure of 

 several weapons of war of the Yurok of Northern California. In this 

 sketch two long chipped implements are represented, one of which is 

 pointed at both ends and the other is very much like the large specimens 



