DBILLS, ETC. 67 



flint, five and three-fourths inches in length, distinctly triangular in section 

 and originally acutely pointed at each end. This specimen is so wholly 

 unlike any that the writer has seen from other localities, that he offers 

 nothing but conjecture as to its use. The specimen is not unique ; one, 

 " almost an exact copy," being obtained by Mr. Schumacher (Nat. 

 Mus., No. 18165) on the island of Santa Cruz, California. The speci- 

 men, of which Fig. 13 is a representation, was obtained at Dos Pueblos, 

 and when found was in one of the tubular pipes. There appears upon the 

 sharper end of this slender implement a somewhat polished surface, which 

 leads to the supposition that it has been used as a drill for some softer min- 

 eral than itself, although it is difficult to see what advantage the regularly- 

 wrought triangular sides would have over a drill of the ordinary shapes, 

 except, perhaps, for boring serpentine pipes. Not until many more of 

 these beautiful specimens of flint Avork are exhumed, and every circum- 

 stance connected with their discovery noted, will it be safe to hazard any 

 opinion concerning them. If simply drills, they should be quite common 

 on former village sites, as are the common Eastern forms of that implement. 

 The apparent rarity of their occurrence does not suggest any commonplace 

 use to which so elaborately wrought a flint was put. 



Fig. 14 represents a drill or borer, as we suppose it to be, of mam- 

 moth dimensions, and is from San Miguel Island. (Nat. Mus., No. 

 18256.) It measures nearly ten and one-half inches in length, and is a 



Fig. 14. 



Flint drill. -J. 



trace over two inches in average width. Two inches of its length, that 

 most carefully chipped, is less than one-half an inch in width, and this por- 

 tion, like the whole length of the preceding, is triangular in section. Judg- 

 ing from the well-worn and polished point on a similar specimen from Santa 

 Cruz Island, Mr. Schumacher (P. M., No. 9302), it is presumable that this 



