ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 157 



possessors, and the want of a ready means for the replacement was 

 more widely felt. To the majority it was a new want. Hence among 

 people widely scattered, more convenient and accessible means were 

 sought for supplying the demand ; and in answer to this want came 

 the discovery, perhaps the result of similar experiences and obser- 

 vations, that gritty rocks every where would yield the same results 

 to similar manipulation by the hands of any one. And a further 

 discovery followed close on the heels of this, that the jagged edges 

 of flints and other hard rocks would by a manipulation but little 

 varied perform the work better and faster than the gritty surface of 

 the sand stones. A stick drawn forcibly over such a sharp edge 

 has its surface scraped from it in thin shavings instead of being 

 merely abraded as heretofore. This important step from abrasion 

 to scraping, which is in fact cutting, was therefore reached before 

 any cutting or abrading tool had been devised. Reached by slow 

 steps, in answer to a felt want, but a want in no way pointing to it, 

 it was actually the invention of another and quite distinct mechani- 

 cal process. It was a better process, gave better results, and the 

 weapon and the art of wood working made progress together. 



We have advanced one step, man now has the notion of the cut- 

 ting edge and its use. But it is part of an immovable bowlder or 

 ledge, not always accessible, and the want of a convenient means 

 always at hand is but partially supplied. The long pilgrimages 

 which had to be taken to the primitive pointer of pikes were at 

 an end, but the journeys though shorter still have to be made. How 

 was the next step, resulting in the production of a portable cut- 

 ting implement, to be accomplished? 



It will be seen at once that in the use for a considerable period 

 of the edge of a rock for cutting purposes it will become dulled. 

 Other parts of the rock having exposed edges will be sought, and 

 these will become dull in turn. This dulling process proceeds more 

 or less rapidly according to the material applied to it ; and as the 

 harder woods were found to be in all respects more serviceable they 

 were more generally used. We may conceive that at some time by 

 the violent application of a hard piece of timber to an edge some- 

 what thinner tlian ordinary, the edge itself instead of being merely 

 dulled is broken off, and to the pleasant surprise of the operator a 

 new edge, sharp and clear, and better than the half-dulled one he 

 had been using, makes its appearance. And he eventually learns 

 that he can at any time produce a new edge by shivering off a piece 



