so Miscellaneous, 



implements with it, just as the loose ballast in the hold of a ves- 

 sel is shifted and rolled from one side to another. 



No one who attentively examines these implements can doubt 

 hat they are the products of human skill. Rude and uncouth- 

 asthey may appear,that rudeness is probably not so much due to any 

 deficiency of intelligence in the manufacturer as to the want of iron or 

 some other metals wherewith to work. Probably no workman 

 who found himself destitute of metal would be able to produce 

 from flint-pebbles more useful or elegant implements. Those 

 who are familiar with the forms which are presented in those 

 flints which are casually fractured, will agree that it is almost im- 

 possible that even a single flint should be so fractured by accident 

 as to assume the shape of these implements ; but here we have 

 a great number, all taken from a single quarrj. Further, it will 

 be seen that the original or natural surface is never retained where 

 t at all interferes with the shape and symmetry of the weapon. 

 Whenever it would have so interfered, chiefly on the sides and 

 at the point, it has been chipped away ; and thus there has been 

 no waste of labour, nothing having been removed but that which 

 was inconvenient. It will also be noticed that they are all for- 

 med after a certain rude but uniform pattern ; they are worked to 

 a blunt point, at one end, with a rude cutting edge on each side, 

 and a sort of boss at the other extremity, forming a handle or 

 hand-hold. In order the better to form this double edge, a ridge 

 s left running down the centre ; and the edges have been formed 

 bv striking away the flint in splinters from each side, in a di- 

 rection at right angles with, or a little oblique to, the axis, the 

 base or under side being usually either flat, or but slightly con- 

 vex. 



The discovery of these implements under the circumstances in- 

 dicated cannot fail to suggest many interesting inquiries. We should 

 all desire to know something more concerning the persons by 

 whom, and the purposes for which, they were fabricated, — how 

 it happened that so many of them were brought together in so 

 small a space,and how it is that no remains have hitherto been found 

 of those by whom they were made and used. These, however 

 are speculations which seem to belong to the province of archae- 

 ology rather than to that of geology ; and they are only now al- 

 luded to by way of suggestion that topics of such importance and 

 interest are well deserving of the investigation of archaeologists." — 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 



