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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



all probability through a long succession of ages ; and he has shown 

 us so clearly what were their weapons and tools, of which any ves- 

 tiges remain, and how they were made and used ; and has correlated 

 them so accurately, as far as might be, with similar objects found in 

 all quarters of the globe, as well as with those described by classical 

 writers, or in use by modern savages, that in reading his work we 

 know not which most to admire, the industry shown in the collection 

 and examination of such a vast amount of material, or the skill with 

 which the information thus obtained has been methodized and ar- 

 ranged. The book completely exhausts the subject, and will long con- 

 tinue to serve as a perfect manual for the collector, as well as furnish- 

 ing most useful materials for archaeologists and anthropologists. 



Those who are not already somewhat versed in this science will be 

 astonished to learn the infinite variety of uses to which the apparently 

 stubborn and unmanageable rock called flint has been converted. We 

 may, perhaps, doubt if in the very earliest ages it was used for pur- 

 poses of warfare, and we prefer to give our progenitors the benefit of 

 that doubt, and to believe that those were " golden ages " times of 

 primitive piety and peace ; and that it was only for purposes of hus- 

 bandry, and the chase, and domestic use, that they worked up the ma- 

 terials found in their plains and valleys. Thus, we find descriptions 

 of celts, or axes for felling trees, or hewing canoes, hoes, threshing- 

 machines as now used in the East or perhaps harrows, scrapers for 

 preparing skins, arrows for birds or other " small deer," knives, gouges, 



Fig. 4. Arrow-head, Isle of Skye. 



saws, mullers, or pounding-stones, chisels, hammer-axes or picks, and 

 polishing or grinding stones, of which there must have been great 

 need ; nor were the women of the period left destitute of their share 

 of the stony spoil; for we find in these pages descriptions and figures 

 of rings, armlets, amulets, spindle-whorls, pestles, and, in the cave-de- 

 posits, needles of bone of admirable workmanship, which might have 

 been, and probably were, drilled by flint-flakes. 



As these primitive people have left us no record of their progress 

 in arts and manufactures, and the material evidences bearing on the 



