176 SIK JOHN EVANS — THE STONE AGE 



my own in the parisli of Abbot's Langley. It is about 21 inches 

 long, ridged, pointed at one end, and ground at the other ; one side 

 has been very carefully ground to an edge. Fig. 5 shows a flake 

 thus sharpened. 



Fig. 5. Flint-flake, ground at edges, Charlton, Yorkshire, E.R. J. 



I will next direct your attention to the scraper, an implement 

 still used in J^orth America for the purpose of scraping the insides 

 of hides in order to remove the fatty matter and so prepare them 

 for tanning. I am not aware how the Esquimaux make these 

 instruments, but I have found by experiment that, taking a flake 

 of flint, made with a stone hammer consisting of a flint or quartzite 

 pebble held in the hand, and placing the flake on a smooth block 

 of stone, I can, by successive blows of the pebble, chip the end of 

 the flake without any difficulty into the desired form. The face 

 of the stone hammer must be brought to bear a slight distance only 

 within the margin of the flake, and, however sharp the blow, the 

 smooth block of stone on which the flake is placed, and which of 

 course projects beyond it, acts as a stop to prevent the hammer 

 from being carried forward so as to injure the form, and it is 

 brought up sharply directly it has done its work of striking off 

 a splinter from the end of the flake. The upper face of the flake 

 remains quite uninjured, and there is no difficulty in producing the 

 evenly- circular edge of the scraper by successive blows of the 

 convex pebble. A typical scraper is shown in Plate IX, fig. 4. 

 A longer form of scraper, to which the term duck-bill scraper has 

 been applied, is of frequent occuiTence. One of these, found by 

 myself on the Sussex Downs, is represented in Plate IX, fig. 5. 

 A flat flake, trimmed into a scraper-like form, and found near 

 Hitchin, is shown in Fig. 6. It is in the collection of Mr. J. 

 Hopkinson. 



