58 
from lower and four made from upper incisors of the beaver, and one made 
from an upper incisor of a woodchuck were found in heap A; sixteen 
made from lower incisors and three from upper incisors of the beaver, and 
one from a lower and four from upper incisors of the woodchuck in heap D; 
one made from a lower incisor of a beaver in heap K and another in heap 
L; two made from lower and one from an upper incisor of the beaver in 
heap M; and one made of an upper incisor of a beaver in heap N. 
The use of such material for carving knives may well have been 
suggested by the similar use which these animals, especially the beaver, 
naturally make of their teeth. The hardness of the teeth eminently 
fits them for it. There are apparently several kinds of these objects, 
some of which may not be knives, although they probably fall within 
this category; for the artificially sharpened edge in all cases could have 
been made to serve in cutting, planing, or scraping. There are several 
kinds made from simple lower incisor teeth; first, those with the natural 
cutting edge slightly sharpened artificially, some with the root end cut 
off, and one of these with the back surface of the tooth ground; second, 
those with the inner canal of the tooth laid open from the back or concave 
side of the tooth; third, those with the tip of the cutting edge cut squarely 
across; fourth, those with the outer side of the tooth at the cutting end 
ground off at a slant from side to side, some of which are sharpened by 
grinding off the corner of this side of the tooth, fifth, longitudinal sections 
or whole teeth rubbed on the inner flat side. The following groups are 
made of upper incisors; first, those with the inner side cut off; second, 
those with the outer side at the cutting end rubbed down at a slant; and 
third, longitudinal sections rubbed on the broken surface. 
Of the first groups, five lower incisors from heap A have about half 
the root end cut off and the natural cutting edge artificially sharpened. 
One of them (Plate XVI, figure 8) is remarkable for having a part of 
the front or convex side of the tooth worn entirely through the enamel, 
apparently by use. The method of cutting off the root end is described 
on page 70 and illustrated on Plate XVIII, figure 14. It was then prob- 
ably smoothed on a grindstone. A sixth (Plate XVI, figure 9) and one 
from heap D are shorter still. Two other long specimens from heap A 
are broken across the root end, but the cutting end is sharpened back 
for over half an inch, on one of them to a convex surface. Of three from 
heap D, two are sharpened convexly. Another from this heap is made 
from the lower incisor of a woodchuck and is both convexly and bluntly 
sharpened. One (figure 10) has the back or concave side of the tooth 
rubbed and the root end has been severed and rubbed down at a slant, 
so that this side of the object is now convex from end to end. In all there 
are nine of this kind from heap A and four from heap D, not counting 
the one made from a woodchuck tooth. 
One small piece of an incisor of a beaver is cut off across the base by 
grooving and breaking, the method apparently used where more was re- 
moved than could readily be ground down on a whetstone. Such grooved 
and broken lower incisors of the beaver have been found in Kentucky 1 . 
After being cut off by grooving and breaking, they were probably ground 
smooth on a whetstone. 
JCf. Smith, p. 199. 
