850 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



East, and, as a consequence, tlie transition from savagery to civilization, 

 from prehistoric to historic, from the bow and arrow to the ride, has 

 been correspondingly faster in the West than in the East. 



IV. FLINT MINES AND QUARRIES IN WESTERN EUROPE AND IN 

 THE UNITED STATES. 



As all arrowi)oints, spearheads, and knives, except a few of siate, 

 were chipped or flaked into shape and used in that condition, the pre- 

 historic man would naturally seek a material which had the recpiisites 

 for such working. Flint and its kindred (the liner being chalcedony, the 

 coarser chert and hornstone), obsidian, jasper, quartz, and quartzite 

 were the principal substances. Obsidian is comparatively rare, and 

 the last three were more or less refractory and would be used only when 

 the better material could not be obtained. Flint was the best. It com- 

 bined the greatest desiderata with the greatest facility of procurement, 

 and was consequently the favorite material of prehistoric man during 

 the polished-stone age, in Euro])e as well as in America. Of the 203 

 specimens of arrowpoints, spearheads, or knives shown in Plates 35 to 

 47 of this paper, 144 are of flint, chalcedony, oi' chert. These are all 

 silicates of a crystalline structure, almost all cryptocrystalline. Flint 

 can be chipped in any direction. It breaks with a conchoidal fracture, 

 and can be struck oft' in long, straight, even, and thin flakes. It is tough 

 and hard, holds a sharp edge and point, and is not difiicult to work. 



(Quarries or mines of flint in dift'erent parts of the world were known 

 and were worked in prehistoric times. The author proposes to describe 

 some of the more important, preferring those which he has visited 

 and inspected, using them as illustrations of others which will be only 

 named. Associated with these mines or quarries are workshops where 

 the various implements were numufactnred. He also proposes to com- 

 pare some of the mines or quarries and the material of Europe with 

 those of the United States. 



EUROPE. 



Spiennes, Belgium. — Spiennes is a hamlet in the neighborhood of the 

 city of Mons, in the province of Hainault, It is on the railway from 

 Mons to Charleroi, and the station is Ilarmignies, the first after leav- 

 ing Mons. 



The author had the honor to be United States consul at the city of 

 Ghent, in the province of Flanders-Oriental, which adjoins that of 

 Hainault on the north, and so had opportunities of frequent visits to 

 Mons, which is the center of an extensive mining district, i)rincipally of 

 coal. He formed the acquaintance of M. F. Cornet, a civil and mining 

 engineer. M. Cornet, with his colleague, M. Briart, made the report 

 upon the prehistoric flint quarries and workshops in the province of 

 Hainault to the International Prehistoric Congress at Brussels in 1872. 

 The members of that congress made an excursion to this locality. 

 There were two objects of interest; one was the prehistoric flint quar- 



