
2 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VoL. XXXVI. 
has described and illustrated hafted stone knives from graves in 
the Santa Barbara Islands and from prehistoric burial caves in 
the state of Coahuila, Mexico; also one knife with a handle of 
antler from a mound in Ohio.! 
The blades of the eight knives from the mummy packs of the 
Mexican burial caves referred to above are chipped from light- 
colored chalcedony, the largest one being seven and one-fourth 
inches in length, and its greatest width being three and one- 
fourth inches. The smallest blade is three and one-fourth inches 
long and two and one-fourth inches wide near its base. The 
blades vary in form, some being proportionally short with round- 
ing points, others being comparatively narrow and sharply 





Fic. 1. — Prehistoric knives from the cliff houses, 14. 
pointed. The hafts of these knives are of wood, about six inches 
in length, the majority of them being made of a section of a 
limb with the bark removed. One is fashioned from the dis- 
carded hearth of a fire-making set, and still retains the burnt 
depression in which the fire drill revolved. The thin base of 
the blades is inserted into a notch extending across the end of 
the haft, and is fastened with gum. 
The knives from the Santa Barbara graves have small blades 
of flint of the leaf-shaped type. The hafts are of split wood, 
the blades being inserted into a notch at one end and secured 
with asphaltum. 
1 Bulletin of the Hee Institute, vol. xv, 1883 ; Wheeler’s made West A the 
basin quide vol. vii; ee Museum Reports, vol. i p- 4) 
ee ee So ee AN C PEOR MET CEREREM IINE S 
= 


