84 FLINT. 



but Traube has announced that it has been found in Silesia. 

 Even if this is confirmed, however, it is the only European 

 locality known, so that their implements must have travelled 

 great distances from hand to hand. This applies even more 

 to those of Jadeite, that metal not having been found native 

 in any part of Europe;* they must therefore have passed 

 from tribe to tribe by a sort of barter. 



Again, beads of Callais, a mineral not known to occur in 

 Europe, have been found in the tumuli of Brittany and some 

 other parts of France. 



Other facts of a similar nature are on record. Thus 

 Messrs. Squier and Davis tell us that in the tumuli of the 

 Mississippi valley we find " side by side, in the same mounds, 

 native copper from Lake Superior, mica from the Alleghanies, 

 shells from the Gulf, and obsidian (perhaps porphyry) from 

 Mexico." Eair representations of the sea-cow or manatee 

 are found a thousand miles from the shores inhabited by that 

 animal, and shells of the large tropical Pyrula perversa are 

 met with in the tumuli round the great lakes, two thousand 

 miles from home. 



On the whole, however, flint was the stone most frequently 

 used in Europe : and it has had a much more important 

 influence on our civilization than is generally supposed. 

 Savages value it on account of its hardness and mode of 

 fracture, which is such that, with practice, a good sound 

 block can be chipped into almost any form that may be 

 required. 



In many cases, blocks and pebbles of flint, picked up on 

 the surface of the ground, were used in the manufacture of 

 implements ; but in others much labour was spent in obtain- 

 ing flint of good quality. A good illustration of this is 

 afforded by the so-called Grimes' Graves, near Brandon, 



* See Appendix. 



