10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



deer and other skins. The edges of these scrapers are beautifully 

 chipped, each stroke leaving the characteristic conchoidal fracture of 

 flint. Here I found a number of stone hammers, which may have 

 been used for dressing the flint scrapers, &c. These hammers are just 

 natural stones which seem to have been selected for their handiness 

 in shape and weight, and they are to be recognised only by the 

 abraded and pitted end, caused by continual hammering. 



My visit to this Ballintoy mound was only a few days after a 

 storm of wind and rain, which rendered the time favourable, and 

 laid bare a great deal of pottery. The largest fragments I saw were 

 5 inches long by 3 inches deep ; but two of these were found together, 

 and the broken edges fit so well, that they may be taken as 

 belonging to one crock or utensil which would measure 1 4 inches 

 in diameter at the mouth, and 16 or 17 inches in depth. 



I have examined the pottery microscopically and find it consists 

 of Lias clay — a bed of which exists in the vicinity — with an inter- 

 mixture of small angular pebbles, seemingly of pounded basalt, to 

 give it consistency. 



This pot was probably used for cooking purposes, and as it 

 narrowed from the lip, and then swelled out, this "neck" would 

 afford a suitable hold for the cord by which I believe these fictile 

 vessels were moved from place to place. The pottery has evidently 

 been made by hand, as none of the fragments (of which a few 

 hundreds have been obtained here) show marks of the lathe or wheel. 

 The inner lip of the above mentioned crock shows the trace of the 

 last hand smoothing, after receiving which it was ornamented with 

 three rows of angular marks, seemingly made with a smaller instru- 

 ment than that used for the decoration of the outside, but of the 

 same three-cornered shape. 



The bit of pottery now exhibited is of better ware and formed 

 part of a smaller vessel than the crock; the ornamentation seems to 

 have been made by the impress of a rough cord. 



The late Mr. Herdman, of Ballintoy, showed me a small cup made 

 of the finest clay, and of a yellow colour, which he found here. It 

 was only 2 inches in height, without ornamentation, and his theory 

 was that it was a playful imitation of the large ware, and made by 

 one of the children of the old world potter. Mr. Herdman gathered 

 fully a hundredweight of bones, shells, stone hammers, flint scrapers, 

 and flakes from this mound, but never found any iron or bronze 

 remains. 



