Pictographs of the North American Indians. A preliminary paper / Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1882-83, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1886, pages 3-256

by Garrick Mallery

INSTRUMENTS FOR CARVING.

This includes etching, pecking, and scratching.

The Hidatsa, when carving upon stone or rocks, as well as upon pieces of wood, use a sharply pointed piece of hard stone, usually a fragment of quartz.

The bow-drill was an instrument largely used by the Innuit of Alaska in carving bone and ivory. The present method of cutting figures and other characters, to record events and personal exploits, consists in the use of a small blade, thick, though sharply pointed, resembling a graver.