“Major S. H. Long, afterwards colonel, who in the latter part of his life succeeded Colonel John J. Abert as head of the Topographical Department of the United States Army, whenever in Philadelphia, was a frequent visitor at my father’s house; and, when preparing for his expedition to the Rocky Mountains, in which my mother’s youngest brother, Titian R. Peale, went as assistant naturalist, I saw him almost daily. The subject of flaking and forming arrow- and spear-heads was one of frequent discussion. My grandfather, C. W. Peale, was at that time owner of the Philadelphia Museum, which had for that period a large collection of Indian curiosities, among them, many collected by Lewis and Clark on their northwestern expedition,—and to me the most interesting was a box of stone implements in various stages of manufacture, evidently collected with the view of illustrating the process. They were never put on exhibition other than in the original package, the lid of the box only having been removed. Major Long’s attention was called to these, and he expressed his belief that on his expedition he would learn the entire process, and on his return be able to explain everything in the Lewis and Clark collection. [Illustration: FIG. 42. 7232 flint discs from a mound of the Hopewell group. Largest cache of implements known to archæologists. (See page 218.) ] “The expedition returned, and, as far as I know, without any positive information as to the process of making the flakes. Mr. Peale said he had seen squaws chipping flakes into small arrow-points, holding the flake in their left hand, grasped between a piece of bent leather, and chipping off small flakes by pressure, using a small pointed bone in the right hand for that purpose. From this it was evident that John Smith’s story was no myth. In my lifelong intimacy with Colonel Long the subject of the flaking operation has frequently been one of conversation, on my regretting that more attention had not been paid to it on either of his expeditions. Knowing his preëminence as a civil engineer and his high attainments as a mechanic, I thought more reliable information would have been obtained by him and his party, composed as it was of such prominent men of science. He said that flakes prepared for points and other implements seemed to be an object of trade or commerce among the Indian tribes that he came in contact with; that there were but few places where chert or quartzite was found of sufficient hardness and close and even grain to flake well, and at those places there were men very expert at flaking. He had understood that it was mostly done by pressure, and rarely by blows, but he had never witnessed the operation. He expressed his belief that it was an art fast being lost, for he had found among tribes who had never seen a white man since the advent of Lewis and Clark, wrought-iron arrow-points made in England by the Birmingham nailers, sent out as articles of trade by the fur companies,