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250 Obsidian in the Yellowstone National Park. [April,

tion by specialists in petrography will doubtless develop many new and interesting features, as no equally rich deposit of similar rocks has heretofore been brought to their notice in this country. 

Indian Implements.-It occured to me, while making examinations at this point, that the various Indian tribes of the neighboring valleys had probably visited this locality for the purpose of procuring material for arrow-points and other implements. A finer mine could hardly be imagined, for inexhaustible supplies of the choicest obsidian, in flakes and fragments of most convenient shapes, cover the surface of the country for miles around.

Having climbed the promontory, I observed that an old but quite distinct trail passed along the brink of the ledge and descended the broken cliffs to the valley above and below. In the vicinity of the trail the glistening flakes proved to be more plentiful than elsewhere, and were also apparently gathered into heaps. After a short search a leaf-shaped implement of very fine workmanship was found; it is made of the black opaque obsidian, and is four inches in length, three inches in width and one-half an inch in thickness; an outline of this implement is given in Fig. 1. Having continued the search as long as the time at my command would permit, I was amply rewarded in the possession of ten more or less perfect implements. Three are leaf-shaped and nearly the same in size as the first specimen found, but imperfect from having been broken. One is somewhat pyramidal in shape, as shown in Fig. 2; the bottom is flat, the flaked surfaces extending from the base to the apex; it is two and a half inches in width and one and three-quarters in height, and is the only specimen in the collection that appears to have been in the least used; the sharp edge at the base in considerably worn; Fig. 3 is a top view of the same. Another specimen is triangular in shape with sides about three inches long; another is rectangular and about three inches wide by four in length and still another is a rude oval; nearly all of these implements are imperfect, as if broken or unfinished. If we are to suppose that the great quantities of minute flakes are the fragments left from the manufacture of implements we must conclude that extensive supplies have been obtained here, but by what tribes or at what period it will be quite impossible to determine.