56 CHIPPED IMPLEMENTS. 



proaches the succeeding variety. At the present day the forms of arrow- 

 heads, whether of metal or stone, vary greatly even in the same tribe, 

 notably those of metal among the Apaches of New Mexico and Arizona. 

 The opinion, so often expressed in various localities, that triangular arrow- 

 heads are "war-arrows," does not seem to be based upon any very well 

 defined reason. So far as those of this pattern from New Jersey are con- 

 cerned, they are never found under any circumstances that indicate they 

 had any purpose not common to the several other forms. In the heaps of 

 refuse indicative of the former sites of arrowmakers' labors, this pattern 

 occurs about as frequently as an)?- other, but as a rule they are of much 

 smaller size. As in the case of the allied form with a convex base, they are 

 occasionally met with of sizes too large to be available for arrowheads, 

 and are presumably knives. The use of the term "knife" in such a con- 

 nection is, however, somewhat objectionable, as it serves solely to cover 

 our ignorance of the use or uses of certain forms of chipped implements 

 having a moderately sharp edge. A long triangular knife is not a con- 

 veniently designed cutting implement, and if such specimens of chipped 

 flints were knives, they served some special purpose, of which we know 

 nothing. 



Figs. 2, 3, 8, 9, 15, and 16, Plate III, represent the well-known leaf- 

 shaped form of arrowpoints. "When this form does not exceed the size of 

 the specimens here depicted we consider it far more probable that they were 

 used for tipping the shafts of arrows than for other purposes. When longer 

 and thicker, it is well known that they were commonly used as knives,* from 

 the fact that specimens still attached to their wooden handles have been 

 found (see Plate IV). This, of itself, cannot be considered a sufficient reason 

 for considering all leaf-shaped flints of small size as knives, particularly 

 those found in the Atlantic coast States. Of hundreds of the latter, 

 gathered by the writer, none exhibit the slightest trace of gum or other 

 material as is seen on the California specimens, even when the handle has 

 itself wholly disappeared. Associated with this leaf-shaped form, in the 

 Atlantic coast States, also, are numbers of chipped jasper implements, that, 



* Archaeological Collection of Nat. Mus., Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, No. 287, p. 

 2, fig. 1, Washington, D. C, 1876. 



