242 RECOKDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



some poi-tion of the periphery generally presents a sharp cutting 

 edge. As to tlie use of this particular form of instrument, littla 

 is known. Wilson in his "Arrow-points, Spear-heads and Knives 

 of Prehistoric Tinies,"'^ gives a short description of tliese small 

 flaked implements, and on PI. xii. lie figures about thirty-six 

 specimens which are practically identical with the Australian 

 examples depicted (PI. xliv.. Group 5). 



Dr. Wilson gives an interesting account of the discovery of a 

 scraper "workshop" on the west coast of Brittany, France. 

 Working in company with M. Gaillard, a visit was paid to the 

 extreme point of the promontory of Quiberon. Here " a liigh 

 rocky point level with the surrounding surface, but forty or fifty 

 feet above the water. It was severed from the mainlanfl by a 

 crevice a few feet in width passable only at low tide. The entire 

 mass was of granite rock. It was covered by a layer of soil which 

 was nearly bare on the ocean side, but on the inside edge it was 

 three-and-a-lialf feet thick. Beginning at the outside edge by 

 screening, examining, and throwing the dirt behind us, bits of 

 broken and wrought flint and fragments of pottery were soon 

 found. We saved everything. Our work continued across the 

 point until we had thousands of objects, principally scrapers in 

 all stages of manufacture. It was a prehistoric scraper 'workshop. 

 The pecularity of these were their diminutive size : many perfectly 

 finished were no larger than a man's thuml) nail. At the edge 

 farthest from . . . the ocean we unearthed the skeleton of a 

 workman, a man of middle age, he wlio probably had made these 

 prehistoric implements, who had here lived and had here died, 

 and had been buried in his workshop and habitation."' In size 

 the Australian worked scrapei's agree a\ ith those above described. 



Brough Smyth" figures a chip for skinning, etc., dug out of a 

 ruirrnyony heap, with some relation to those of the present 

 group, but our coastal chips are much more highly flaked, and 

 usuallv with a central ridae. 



No. IV. — Platf, xmh.. Group 1. 



Another instrument (flg. 41) which often displays chipping, 

 flaking and notcliing, was found in great numl)ers. The shape is 



1- Wilson — Ann. Keport Regents Smitlisoniaii Inst. (I'.S. Nat. Mus. Ee])ort) 



for 1897 (1899), pt. i., p. 867. 

 !■' Brongli Sinvtli - Loc. nit., i., p. 382, fiji. 217. 



