towards his waist, he made steady pressure against the fractured
edge of the glass, so as to make small chips flake off from the
edge towards the smooth side surface. In effecting this he was
able to use great force, because, while the left hand, which held
the glass, was supported rigidly against his chest, the manner in
which he held the fashioning tool enabled him to bring the whole
strength of his wrist to bear upon the edge of the glass. After
having bevelled off one side of the edge, he turned the glass round
and bevelled the other side in a similar manner. Having once
imparted a double bevel to the edge, he was easily able, by operating
on each side alternately, to reduce the substance of the margin
in any one place until the glass had assumed the outline required.
Proceeding in this way, the formation of the barbs and the recessing
of the base for the ligature which would secure it to the shaft,
were effected to all appearance with the greatest facility. The
most difficult part of the business was now the formation of the
fine point, as the chipping and flaking had to be conducted with
the greatest nicety. However, after half-an-hour’s steady work,
he triumphantly produced a spear-head two and a half inches long,
and of the form shown in the annexed sketch. The arrow-heads
are made in the same way, and are about one inch in length.
We had the chipping operation repeated on many subsequent
occasions, and by various individuals, and found that all adopted
the same method ; the essential feature of which was that the
fashioning of the glass was effected entirely by pressure, and that
no striking implement was used. I induced one of the men to
try an old flat file, instead of his own chipping instrument, but he
soon discarded it ; however he found a blunt-edged ship’s knife
very convenient for giving the finishing touches to the point of
the spear-head. With the experience gained from the Fuegians,
I soon learnt to turn out very fair imitations of their work ; and
after practising on various kinds of glass, I found that the easiest
to work with was black bottle-glass, and the most difficult plate-
glass. Green pickle bottle-glass is about a mean between the
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