The implements of the Rocky Mountains themselves might be separated into three or four localities. There are so few collections from the Rocky Mountains, south of the headwaters of the Columbia and the Missouri, that I have not sufficient data on which to base accurate observations. This will be secured, however, at some future time. Typical Mandan spears and arrows are shown in Fig. 138. Colorado types and those from elsewhere in the mountains are seen in Figs. 123, 134, and 153.
It appears that many of the scrapers, knives, and projectile points of the Great Plains were made of material brought down from the mountains. Naturally, the natives went to the nearest quarry sites, obsidian ledges, or where chert and agatized wood and other flakable materials were to be found.
Fig. 215. (S. 7–8.) Egyptian points from near Cairo, Egypt. Presented for comparison. Note how unlike any American forms. Of these 22, only 6 are similar to the United States types. Material: finely chipped, true brown flint. Age unknown. Collection of L. V. Case, Tarrytown, New York.
Central and western Texas furnish slender points of yellow chert and scrapers of the same material. But there are also projectile points of white and red flint quite different from those of Kansas and Nebraska. (See Figs. 119 and 189.) Arizona and New Mexico types are chiefly of obsidian, yet there is chalcedony and agatized wood. (See Fig. 128.) While Arizona and New Mexico chipped objects are of the same general character as those from the Columbia River and its tributaries, yet, usually, they can be distinguished. (See Figs. 97, 104, 110.) But there are obsidian points in both regions identical in character.
The Pacific Coast furnishes more large implements than are to be found between California and Tennessee. Illustrations of California types are in Figs. 78, 136, and 151. There are also California forms which are rare in the Columbia Valley. Obsidian was used almost exclusively in California.
The sugar quartz of Wisconsin, and the pink quartz of Arkansas are almost agates. The range in texture of the stone and color of all these implements is considerable. Although mineralogists name many of them as of one kind of stone, yet these implements can be distinguished, because of peculiar color or markings or texture, by the naked eye. There is nothing visionary about such differentiation. It is real and apparent. The people of a given village-site, or of a given territory, obtained their material from a certain ledge or quarry or river drift, and neighboring tribes, two or three hundred miles away, went elsewhere for their material.
I have referred on previous pages to the long flint objects from the Middle South. Readers will do well to compare them with the best flint abroad or elsewhere. It was necessary for the master workman who made these objects to secure unusually long, clear blocks of flint, in which were no imperfections. Where the material was obtained for these specimens (some of which are twenty to twenty-two inches in length) is a mystery. It was a simple task for the ancient workman to block out the implement, leaving it spade-like in character, fairly thick, and exhibiting a surface from which flakes an inch or more in size had been chipped. The next step required, one may imagine, the combined efforts of two or three skillful workmen.
Possibly they made use of simple levers and heavy bone tools, as Sellars has stated, in order to detach the flakes. Pressure wrongly directed would result in breaking the implement. The final chipping must have been the work of one man, and doubtless it was performed by means of a single bone flaking-tool. We can imagine with what care the master workman proceeded. How many of these long thin blades he broke no man may know.
