174 



Sm JOHN EVAKS — THE STOSTE AGE 



Fi'om the hatchets the step to the chisels and the gouges or 

 hollow chisels is easy. In this countiy the latter are of extreme 

 rarity, but in Scandinavia they are often to be found, chiefly near 

 the sea-coast, where they were probably used in the construction of 

 canoes cut out of solid trunks of trees, and for other purposes. 



Other forms of implements are perforated. A block of stone of 

 a hard character was generally selected, and a hole bored in the 

 middle, in all probability by pecking with a flint implement, and 

 then grinding the rough holes thus made on either face with 

 a piece of hard wood and sand, drilling until the two conical 

 depressions met in the middle of the block. In other specimens in 

 which the hole is nearly parallel, and which may be of later date, 

 it is probable that some other method of boring was adopted. It 

 has been found that with a piece of ox's horn and wet sand or 

 emery -powder a hole can easily be bored by turning the horn round 

 and round. I have myself taken an old stone hatchet and cut 

 it in two with a bit of string and some sand; and I have bored 

 a hole in it partly by means of wood and partly by means of 

 a marrow-bone, used with sand and water, but I found that the 

 latter answered better than the former. I am not aware of a per- 

 forated hatchet having been found in this county, but some years 

 ago a small stone hammer-head, with a hole for the shaft or 

 handle which must have been bored in some similar manner to that 

 which I have described, was found near Sandridge by Dr. Griffith, 

 and is now in the British Museum. This type of hammer is shown 

 in Fig. 3. A perforated adze or hoe formed of a dark grey grit, 



Fig. 3. Hammer found in Redmore Fen, Cambs. 



and found at "Welburj^, near Offley, is shown in Fig. 4. The 

 original is in the collection of Mr. W. Ransom, F.S.A., of Hitchin. 

 Flakes are plentiful, but it is difficult to say to what period they 

 belong. A certain number may have been made by the plough 

 coming in contact with flints, and others may have been used 

 in comparatively modern times for the purpose of striking a light. 



