52 CHIPPED IMPLEMENTS. 



Mr. Powers mentions that the present Indians of California, when 

 fighting, use sharp pieces of stone with which they endeavor to cut each 

 other in the face. For such a method of warfare these long points mounted 

 on short handles, it seems to me, would be well adapted, when as simply 

 thrusting implements they would be of little use, as stated above by Dr. 

 Abbott.— F. W. P.] 



Less delicately wrought, but much more durable, and by far more 

 common, are other certain dagger-like flint blades, one of which, collected 

 by Mr. Schumacher near Santa Barbara and now in the National Museum 

 (No. 15242), is represented by Fig. 1. These vary from five to six inches in 

 length, and when narrow in proportion to their length, bear a close resem- 

 blance to the Danish flint daggers.* When of smaller size than the speci- 

 men here figured, whether broader in proportion to the length or not, they 

 become identical with a form that the writer has classed as "jasper knives," 

 when treating of the stone implements of the Atlantic coast States. When 

 this form has distinctly serrated edges, they were very probably used as 

 saws, even if serrated only upon one side, and not the entire length. f 



Daggers, if such they are, like Fig. 1, are not peculiar to the Pacific 

 coast. Of this form, and some more carefully shaped, in which the blade 

 and handle are separated by barb-like projections, many are found in 

 Alabama, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.J 



Plate II, Figs. 1, 2, and 3, and possibly also Figs. 23 and 27 of Plate 

 III, represent very beautiful specimens of spearheads, as we propose to 

 call them. Those figured on Plate II are about, or quite, the maximum size 

 of this form of weapon ;§ while Figs. 23 and 27 of Plate III are veritable 

 links between the spear proper and the arrowhead. Fig. 27, in fact, may 

 possibly have been used as a cutting-tool, and not as a hunting implement 

 or weapon. These specimens are chipped from brownish-gray jasper with 



* Prehistoric Times, 2d ed., p. 97, fig. 117, London, 1869. 



+ Stone Age in Scandinavia, 2d ed., p. 80; pi. v, figs. 87, 88, and 90-93. (Some of these, the 

 author has denominated semi-lunar knives, but being serrated along one edge, were more probably 

 used as saws, and not simply for cutting. ) 



t Several specimens of this character and made of the same dark flint were obtained on the Cum- 

 berland River in 1876, and are now in the Peabody Museum. — F. W. P. 



§ Annual Report Smithsonian Institution for 1875, p. 270. (The specimen here described — the 

 illustration omitted — was probably an exceptional instance, no other specimen of like measurements 

 being on record from New Jersey. ) 



