1 1 8 Mr. Lovett on the 



There are several recognised sizes of gun-flints, known chiefly 

 as Carbines, Muskets, Single-barrels, and Horse-pistol ; and as 

 the flakes produce unequal sizes the workman is supplied with 

 different receptacles, so that he has to discriminate as to which 

 class the particular gun -flint he produces at each blow of the 

 hammer belongs to, and deposits it accordingly. No gauge or 

 measurement of any kind is used, and yet when the gun flints 

 are turned out in the bulk according to pattern they run with 

 remarkable uniformity in size and appearance. The present 

 gun-flints are struck from long flakes several to a flake, and I 

 was informed that they are called "Frenchmen," owing to the 

 fact of their having been introduced to Brandon from France. 

 The old gun-flints appear to me to have been rounded at the 

 base, and were more like what the flint-makers call " Strike-a- 

 lights," only smaller; these again resemble the so-called 

 " scrapers " of the Neolithic age. Indeed I was much struck 

 with the evolution of these recent flint implements from those of 

 the older period. The " Strike-a-lights," already referred to, are 

 generally known as " Englishmen" ; they are used with flint and 

 steel, and I was surprised at the demand for these things even 

 now. Not only do they go abroad, but many are used in this 

 country ; and I understand that the flint- workers themselves 

 never obtain fire but by the old flint and steel method. 



As I was desirous of ascertaining to what extent the gun-flint 

 workers were capable of producing other implements besides 

 those of their regular trade, I took a man off his work, and gave 

 him some ideas to work out. Beyond the chipping that could be 

 produced by means of the knapping hammer on the " stake," I 

 soon found that nothing could be reproduced at all like pre- 

 historic implements, beyond the scrapers already referred to. 

 The so-called secondary working, admired and valued as a proof 

 of the genuineness of neolithic weapons, is produced on the gun- 

 flint worker's block as a natural consequence of breaking off the 

 the overlapping flint by the hammer when the flint is laid over 

 the edge of the stake. Indeed I produced the same effect myself 

 with the greatest ease, and I fabricated a "scraper" out of a 

 piece of waste flint, which is certainly equal in finish to any I 

 ever saw of Neolithic age. But when we come to face-flaking 

 and chipping, the matter is a very different one. I did all I could 

 to get the worker to do this, but all attempts broke the flake each 

 time, and I was assured the thing was quite impossible. Here 

 at any rate is a point in favour of the superior skill of prehistoric 

 man, although I believe myself that, with different implements, 

 &c., such work might be produced. At present the object of the 

 gun-flint workers of Brandon is to make gun-flints, and to make 

 them as fast as they can, as they are paid by the job ; but I have 

 no doubt that if they were called upon to fabricate a face-flaked 



