IGO TrvAXSACTIOXS OF THE 



the name palaoUthic to indicate the age marked by the first 

 traces of human workmanship in stone implements, we must recog- 

 nize the protoUthic age, in which stone fragments showing no 

 trace of such workmanship were the common implements of man- 

 kind. Tlie earliest age of wrought implements could never have 

 come but for such a precursor. The rudest wrought forms did not 

 appear till something of the same nature and used for the same pur- 

 poses, but imperfectly adapted for their performance, had created 

 the need of them and led up to the means for its supply, and the 

 one thing which bore these relations to the earliest recognizable 

 forms of dressed-stone implements was the unformed flake. 



What were the steps from this form of flint knife, or scraper, or 

 hatchet, to the hafted celt? 



I formerly reached the conclusion that the original endowment 

 of man could include no less than the stick and stone for striking 

 and hurling, and the string or withe for tying or binding. In the 

 course of this paper I have traced the synchronous development of 

 the art of dressing wood, and of stone appliances for the purpose. 

 With the advancement of these it is not to be supposed any former 

 art or expedient was lost. On the contrary it is to be presumed 

 that progress in them had been made corresponding to that we have 

 been following. The club was better fashioned ; approved forms 

 of hurling-sticks may have been discovered and come into use. 

 Greater skill may have been acquired in the use of the hammer-stone, 

 and judgment in the selection of suitable forms either for crushing, 

 or for splitting, and with more convenient hand-grasp. The flexi- 

 ble vines and strips of bark, with which primitive man lashed his 

 frail shelter, his successor may have improved by rudely twisting the 

 fibres or strands, or have supplemented by other materials, notably, 

 after he had acquired the use of the flint knife, by strips of skin and 

 animal tendons. The inventory of his possessions then would 

 embrace the club and pike, each clearly specialized, the hammer- 

 stone, not formed by art but selected, the stone knife, and strings 

 of various materials. The pike, the hammer stone and knife may 

 have been of many forms. Now it will be seen that these elements 

 may be brought together in various ways so as to accomplish a 

 variety of results, the elements in every case being a stick, a stone, 

 and a string to bind them together, and the difference in result de- 

 pending on the particular form of stick and stone. For instance 

 the heavy end of a club is made heavier by lashing to it a hammer 

 stone — result the mace. The pike is improved by securing to it a 



