From mound-building I turn again to North American flint implements. Mr. Stevens refers in his work to the absence of flint scrapers in the series from the United States exhibited in the Blackmore Museum. Scrapers of the European spoon-shaped type, however, are not as scarce in the United States as Mr. Stevens seems to suppose. The collection of the Smithsonian Institution contains a number of them; and I found myself two characteristic specimens in the Kjökkenmödding at Keyport, New Jersey, described by me in the Smithsonian report for 1864. They lay upon the shell-covered ground, a short distance from each other, and were perhaps made by the same hand. In Fig. 4 I give a full-size drawing of one of my specimens, both of which consist of a brown kind of flint, such as probably would be called jasper by mineralogists. The figured specimen, it will be seen, possesses all the characteristics of a European scraper. Its lower surface is formed by a single curved fracture. The rounded head is somewhat turned toward the right, a feature likewise exhibited in the other specimen, which is a little larger, but not quite as typical as the original of Fig. 4. As the peculiar curve of the broad part is observable in both specimens, it must be considered as having been produced intentionally. Indeed, I have among my flint scrapers from the pilework at Robenhausen one which is curved in the same direction. In fashioning their implements in this particular manner, the Indian and the ancient lake-man possibly had the same object in view.
There is, however, another somewhat different class of North American flint articles, which, as I believe, were employed by the aborigines for scraping and smoothing wood, horn, and other materials in which they worked, or perhaps, also, in the preparation of skins. They resemble stemmed arrow-heads, which, instead of being pointed, terminate in a semi-lunar, regularly chipped edge. It is probable that they were partly made from arrow-heads which had lost their points. Schoolcraft gives in Fig. 3, of Plate 18, in the first volume of his large work, the drawing of an object of this class, calling it "the blunt arrow or _Beekwuk_, (Algonkin,) which was fired at a mark." It is likely enough that these articles served in part the purpose assigned to them by Mr. Schoolcraft. Yet, I have in my collection several in which the rounded edge is worn and polished, while the remaining part retains its original sharpness of fracture, a circumstance that can only be ascribed to continued use, and therefore leads me to believe that they were employed in the manner already indicated. These implements hardly could be used without handles. Fig. 5 represents, in natural size, one of my specimens, which was found on the surface near West Belleville, Saint Clair County, Illinois. The material is a yellowish-brown flint. The edge, it will be seen, is perfectly scraper-like. Inserted into a stout handle, this object would make an excellent scraper. The edge of this specimen is not polished, but it seems as if small particles of the edge had been scaled off by the pressure exerted in the use of the implement. In the original of the above full-size representation, Fig. 6, on the contrary, the curved edge is rubbed off to a considerable extent and perfectly polished, while the portion opposite the edge bears not the slightest trace of friction. This specimen, which consists of a whitish flint, was found in Saint Clair County, Illinois. In Fig. 7, lastly, I represent, in natural size, a fine large specimen, which I class among the implements under notice. I formerly supposed it to be a tool destined for cutting purposes, but the condition of the edge, which is rather blunt and hardly fit for cutting, afterward induced me to change my opinion. Originally, perhaps, one of those unusually large spear-heads, which are occasionally found, it may have been reduced subsequently, after having lost the point, to its present shape. Yet, it may never have possessed a form different from that which it now exhibits. This specimen is chipped from a fine reddish flint which contains encrinites. I obtained it from quarrymen near West Belleville, who found it in the earth while they were engaged in baring the rock for extending the quarry. In conclusion, I will state that, since writing the preceding pages, I received a number of stone implements from Muncy, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, among which there are some large scrapers of the European type. Their material, however, is not flint, but either graywacke or a kind of tough slate.