888 PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



broken into smaller ones of a convenient size for handling, and taken 

 to one of the blocking-out shops. Here they were broken into pieces 

 of such size as would be best adapted for the form of weapon desired, 

 the faulty pieces rejected, and perhaps the largest blocks chipped into 

 a rough outline of its final form. Next, it was taken to the finishing 

 shops, where the smaller hammers were brought into play to chip off 

 as much as was possible by such means, after which the weapon, if in- 

 tended to be completed here, was flaked off, by means of pressure ex- 

 erted with a piece of bone or horn, until it reached an outline as regular 

 and a finish as smooth as its maker desired or was able to give. 



The well-diggers say that the flint can be got out in solid pieces meas- 

 uring 12 to 18 inches each way ; that it has a smooth, oily look not found 

 in those pieces exposed on the surface ; and that it is much tougher 

 and harder to break. This " toughness " is probably due to the moist- 

 ure in the stone, as the statement has been made that flint when first 

 got out of the ground can be flaked off with but little difficulty, while 

 after even a short exposure it becomes brittle and is liable to break in 

 any direction. Whether, when thus dry and brittle, it could be re- 

 stored to its former state by immersion or burial is a question for ex- 

 periment. 



One of the old-timers who has been living here for nearly fifty years 

 says that when he first came to the country the old-fashioned flint-lock 

 muskets were in general use, and that the hunters were in the habit of 

 collecting pieces of flint and soaking them in oil for some weeks before 

 using them. This caused them to last much longer ; a flint that would, 

 by shattering, become useless in one day, could by this means be made 

 to last for weeks. Is it not possible that the aboriginal workers had 

 some such process by which they could render their work easier and 

 more certain 1 



Careful investigation of these finishing shops gives rise to another 

 belief, namely, thatvery few weapons, as compared with the great amount 

 of flint used, were ever fully completed here. The great number of 

 roughly finished specimens found here, when there seems to have been 

 no reason for having discontinued work on them, and the great quan- 

 tities of similarly shaped pieces from this locality occurring at places 

 quite distant, show that the majority of the pieces worked here were 

 brought nearly to the required shape and that it was left with the final 

 owner to give each one such degree of fine finish and symmetry as 

 suited him. There are many places remote from any flint deposit 

 where flakes and spalls are found in abundance, showing that flint im- 

 plements of some description had been dressed on the spot. 



The immense amount of work done at Flint Eidge, and the widely 

 separated points at which material from here has been found, may be 

 explained in two ways : 



First, that some particular tribe or race owned this region, and car- 

 ried on for generations, or perhaps centuries, a regular traflSc in such 



