DIFFICULTY OF MAKING FLINT FLAKES. 91 



Figs. 86 89 represent small Danish flakes : forms exactly 

 similar may be found in any country where the ancient in- 

 habitants could obtain flint or obsidian. In fig. 86 we see 

 that another flake had been previously taken from the same 

 block. Figs. 86, 88, represent flakes of which the points have 

 been broken off, but we see along their whole length the 

 depression caused by the previous removal of other flakes. 

 The section of such a flake is, therefore, not triangular, as in 

 fig. 90 a, but four-sided, as in fig. 90 &. Sometimes, though 

 not often, a wide flake is taken off in such a way as to over- 

 lap two previous flakes, as in the case of the one represented 

 in fig. 89. In this instance, the section is pentagonal; the 

 flat under-surface remaining always the same, but the upper 

 side showing four facets. 



Easy as it may seem to make such flakes as these, a little 

 practice will convince any one who attempts to do so, that a 

 certain knack is required ; and a gun-flint maker at Brandon 

 told me that it took him two years to acquire the art. It 

 is also necessary to be careful in selecting the flint. It is 

 therefore evident that these flakes, simple as they may appear, 

 are always the work of man. To make one, the flint must 



be held firmly, and 

 then a considerable 

 force must be applied, 

 either by pressure or 

 by blows, repeated 



three or four times, 



sections of Flakes. but at least three, and 



given in certain slightly different directions, with a certain 

 definite force ; conditions which could scarcely occur by acci- 

 dent ; so that, simple as it may seem to the untrained eye, a 

 flint flake is to the antiquary as sure a trace of man, as the 

 footprint in the sand was to Eobinson Crusoe. 



It is hardly necessary to say, that the flakes have a sharp 



