A GALLOWAY STONE-AGE VILLAGE. 83 
Seven facets can be detected in a length of 4 inches on the cut 
surface of another pile 3 inches thick. 
Some typical and instructive specimens of acutely pointed 
pile-ends have been secured. On one log, 3 facets, which 
touch each other like links in a chain, show that the 
blade has travelled against the wood during three successive 
blows at least 4, 22, and 4 inches at the first, second, and 
third strokes respectively. The length of each excision is com- 
paratively great, but the cutting is shallow, the blade having 
been driven along just under the bark. On one of the acutely 
pointed logs there is an area 7 inches by 2 inches showing 10 
cuts. The cut areas on some of these acutely pointed logs 
exhibit very clearly a succession of concavities and ridges 
tesembling a “choppy,’’ agitated sheet of water—a feature 
which characterises the carpentry work found on the sites. The 
sharpening extends in the cases of 2 piles a distance of 14 inches 
from the point, but the distance varies some inches on different 
sides of the same log. Indeed, the irregularity of the work and 
the lop-sidedness of the pointed ends are noteworthy. 
It seems undeniable that the balance of the probabilities 
lies in favour of a smoothly ground and hafted stone axe with 
a convex edge having been used. 
From the study of these and other specimens of pre-historic 
axe-work which have survived, it becomes clear that not only 
can the nature of the material of the instrument employed be 
discerned, but the kind of stone axe and the size of the tool 
may be determined with some exactness. 
SEcTION III.—INFERENCES AND CONCLUSIONS. 
By considering all the purposes for which it might appear 
possible that these places have been constructed, the probabilities 
of the case may be arrived at. There is no trace of any inter- 
ments having taken place in them; and it is not a feature of 
early graves that they are marked by a hollow on the surface. 
There is no evidence that these places have been graves. It 
is improbable that they have been refuse pits. They were 
apparently not holes such as were excavated during early times 
for the extraction of clay for pottery-making, or such as were 
mined in the chalk districts of England and France to obtain 
flint nodules and chalk. The under-structures of timber appear 
