Crun-flint Manufactory at Brandon. 1 1 5 



they are of great interest to students of the early history of man. 

 Their extreme age is undoubted, as the rude flint implements 

 found in considerable numbers in and near the pits fix their age 

 in the stone period with certainty. Besides this, a fact of great 

 importance and interest came to light in the investigation of the 

 pits, and this was the discovery of the picks used by these early 

 diggers. These picks are made of the horns of the red deer, and 

 all the tynes or branches of the horn are removed except the one 

 at the base of the horn, and this one serves for the point of the 

 pick. These remarkable pre-metallic tools were found in con- 

 siderable numbers in the galleries of the pits, their points were 

 bruised and worn, and the part held in the hand was smooth. 

 In one case at least, the impression of a hand could be traced on 

 the once wet chalky handle. Owing to their enormous age, these 

 wonderful deer-horn picks were as fragile as dust, and in order 

 to preserve them gelatine was poured over them as they lay on 

 the ground. 



It is astounding what results were obtained by prehistoric man, 

 when we consider that metal was (in the stone age ) absolutely un- 

 known ; when his pickaxe was a deer's horn, and when his axes 

 and spades were of flnt or igneous rock. It is also remarkable 

 that the present flints are worked on almost exactly the same 

 method and principle as the old ones, and that the iron pick of 

 to-day is peculiar to these workmen, and strangely resembles in 

 form and make the old deer-horn pick of an unrecorded age. 



Before, however, we refer to the present flint pits, there are 

 one or two points of a geological character which call for notice. 

 As already stated, the chalk of Brandon yields very fine and large 

 flints, and the chief pits are situated on a high and breezy 

 common, about a mile out of the village. The orduiary soil or 

 alluvium of the locality contains thousands of small broken 

 flints, as well as implements of a prehistoric period. These are 

 all highly glazed and stained, through long contact with various 

 materials — vegetable, mineral, and meteorological ; these are 

 known to the flint-workers as china-faced flints, and are certainly 

 the most highly glazed specimens I ever saw. Below this 

 alluvial deposit occurs an impure chalky loam, locally known as 

 " dead-lime." This material is charged with re-deposited flints 

 much broken, which are there called "edgeways." Below this 

 deposit comes the true chalk, in the upper part of which occur 

 branched flints, called "horns flints"; below this comes the top 

 stone, which is not very good in quality ; below that the side 

 stone, and at about forty-five or fifty feet from the surface they 

 come to the " floor stone," or best quality flint. This occurs 

 in very large solid blocks of about one hundredweight each, 

 though pieces have been obtained of as much as three hundred- 

 weight. 



