Modes of Making Flint Weapons. 33 



same tribe are not always made of the same size and 

 material, and are shaped by the savages according to their 

 prevailing fancy : the Toutons on the Upper Missouri, fof 

 instance, using both iron arrow-heads, also those made out of 

 flint. In the same quiver of an Indian belonging to any one 

 tribe, a great variety of different shaped arrow-heads will be 

 found, which proves that the same tribe follows no special 

 type, but fashions them according to any kind of taste." 



With reference to other relics of the past race, tobacco-pipes 

 of stone, very rude in construction, are found on the islands 

 in the St. John, where the aborigines of old were wont to 

 spear the salmon, bass, or sturgeon. Their antiquity, how- 

 ever, may be doubted. The natives, moreover, have a tradition 

 that it was not very long ago that the Indians smoked only 

 their native willow bark (S. nigra) y which they even now mix 

 with tobacco, or use alone when the latter is not procurable. 



The absence of pottery, as far as I have noticed, seems re- 

 markable ; and I scarcely think if it had been in common use 

 there would have been an absence of traces in the middens 

 and old encampments; but so small a portion of the region 

 has been examined, that I shall not be surprised if further 

 disclosures confirm the presence of clay-made ware of some 

 sort. I mention this especially in connection with the stone 

 pot just referred to. The absence of sculptures of any sort on 

 bone or stone is also worthy of notice, if we except a very 

 remarkable object figured in Dawson's "Acadian Geology," and 

 said to have been found on the banks of the Kennebeckasis, 

 one of the influents of the St. John River. This work of 

 art, according to the above authority, " is three feet in length, 

 and is composed of a hard conglomerate, occurring in situ 

 in the vicinity of the place where it was discovered. It has 

 the aspect of a rude attempt at the execution of a sphinx or 

 cherub, and may have been a monumental stone, or the orna- 

 ment of a gate, or the charm of a medicine-man." * 



* " Acadian Geology," p. 45. 



D 



