At least two well-defined varieties of these points may be recognized:—
1. The first of these is provided with a short, broad, oval, or almond-shaped blade. The stem and socket in this form is usually broadest at the base, tapering or narrowing toward the blade. The average length of these specimens is about four inches. A large specimen found at Ripon, Fond du Lac County, measures seven inches in length, and two inches in breadth near the base of the blade. Specimens of this type may be seen in the Hamilton, State Historical Museum, Logan Museum, and other collections.
2. The second form is furnished with a long, narrow, lanceolate blade, often twice or more than twice as long as the stem. The socket and stem rarely taper upward and are of more nearly equal width throughout. In both this and the preceding form the flanges of the socket are rolled inward, in some instances nearly meeting. The average length of these points appears to be about five inches. The largest specimen known measures eleven and one half inches in length. Such specimens are to be seen in nearly every Wisconsin cabinet.
In the very limited number of the smaller specimens the face of the blade, rarely the back, is ornamented with indentations. The edges of the blade are also sometimes beveled.
Among the smaller specimens is observed a variety in which the length of the stem equals or exceeds that of the blade. In some specimens the socket has the appearance of having been formed by excavating the stem, the narrow flanges being continuous with the blade instead of cut and turned inward as in the ordinary form. A small number of iron socketed spear-points, not differing greatly from the ordinary socketed copper point, have been found.
Peculiar points. In several Wisconsin collections are several spear-points of curious form not included under any of the foregoing descriptions or represented, so far as can be learned, in other Wisconsin cabinets.
Fig. 610. (S. 1–1.) Ornamented copper plate, Seip Mound, Ohio. W. C. Mills’s collection.
One of these in the H. P. Hamilton collection has a long slender blade and a very short socket. It is seven and one quarter inches in length and comes from Two Rivers, Manitowoc County. Its blade is ornamented with a row of nine indentations.
In the Milwaukee Public Museum is a series of three peculiar socketed spear-points of an average length of about eight and one half inches. The blade of each of these is very long and narrow, with straight edges, and terminates in a sharp point. The stem is very short and narrow in comparison with the blade and broadens into a short socket at its base. One specimen has the middle of its blade, from near the base toward the middle, ornamented with a continuous zigzag indentation. Another has upon its blade a series of dots arranged in a triangular form. Two of these points come from Fond du Lac County, and the other from Sheboygan County.