1879. | Archeology of the Champlain Valley. 745 
Of knives we find many interesting specimens, exhibiting, I 
think, more than the usual variety of form. All that have been 
found on the eastern shore of the lake are chipped or flaked, but, 
as will be seen hereafter, ground knives have been found on the 
western shore. In the examination of our specimens I have 
often found it difficult, and sometimes impossible, to decide 
whether a given specimen was to be considered a knife or a lance, 
or a spearhead, for the “knives” pass, by indistinguishable gra- 
dations, into several other classes of implements. Moreover, I 
cannot doubt that often the same implement was used at one time 
without a handle as a knife or skin dresser, and at another fas- 
tened to a shaft as a spear or lance. Some of our Vermont 
knives are quite rude, others are more elegantly formed and 
finished, but none of them present so finished an appearance as 
some of the ground knives from other localities. The common oval 
knife with a sharp edge all around it is often found, and of various 
sizes, some being less than an inch in diameter, others several 
inches; other knives are ovate, triangular, lanceolate, linear, and 
Many more or less irregular modifications of these forms. All of 
these are without stems, and most of them undoubtedly knives, 
used for no other purpose than cutting. Some are edged on all 
sides, others on only one; some are several inches long and not 
more than one wide, making dirk-shaped implements. 
It is interesting to notice that on both shores of Lake Cham- 
plain we find the same quadrangular forms, broken across one end, 
as those figured by Dr. Abbott in his “Stone Age in New Jersey,”? 
and from the appearance of our specimens I am inclined to agree 
with him in believing that the break was not accidental, or rather, 
I should think it more probable that the broken end is simply 
the original surface of the block of flint or quartz from which the 
knife was flaked, and while all the other sides were chipped, this 
was left, perhaps for insertion in some sort of a handle of wood 
or bone. Stemmed or hafted knives of many forms occur 
abundantly all over this region, some of them shaped much like 
a modern knife, others more like lance or spear points, and I do 
not think that any definite line can be drawn between these classes 
of implements. In Vol. v of this magazine, p. 16, Fig. 5, a very 
peculiar form of what I then called a spear point, is shown about 
half natural size. At the time the article was written, this speci- 
men was the only one I had ever seen, but since then several 
' Smithsonian Report, 1875, p. 301, figs. 111, 112. 
