By Joseph Stevens, Esq. Ill 



they were used for building ovens in the earth, for the purpose of 

 cooking food, after the manner of the natives of the Sandwich 

 Islands. It is difficult to conceive that the Celtic people were 

 ignorant of fire-proof utensils, and that they resorted to heated 

 stones in order to raise the temperature of their water. With 

 Celtic remains rude pottery is commonly found, so that, granting 

 that the " heating-stone " was an appendage to the Celtic kitchen, 

 it must one would think have been employed for some other pur- 

 pose than as a pot-boiler. 



The most notable particular in this short flint history is the 

 paucity of rubbed specimens. .They occur so seldom in fact, pro- 

 portionately to the flaked ones, as to lead to the inference that 

 rubbing could have been but rarely practised. The art of polishing 

 was probably quite unknown early in the Neolithic period. Par- 

 tial rubbing it is likely preceded entire polishing, That which in 

 the beginning was the exception became in later times the rule. 

 Besides, it is certain that equal expertness could not have been 

 manifested by different tribes at the same period, the inhabitants of 

 one district polishing their tools, while the occupants of some other 

 remote corner of the country had not advanced beyond the art of 

 flaking. Further, the polished axes differ somewhat in form and 

 face in different districts ; and those appertaining to the bronze 

 period have a type and finish we look in vain for among the pre- 

 historic specimens of earlier date. The early polished hatchet was 

 probably the work of leisure, and formed more particularly for the 

 chief, and to share his burial mound, and not for the mere hewer 

 of wood and drawer of water. In short, as far as usefulness is 

 concerned, it is difficult to see the advantage the rubbed implement 

 possesses over the chipped one. In comparative excellence the 

 worked flints of Hampshire are somewhat in advance of those 

 found in the neighbourhood of Salisbury, and are equal to the 

 Yorkshire implements judging from those in the Blackmore 

 collection. 



Although it is easy to trace the topography of these interesting 

 relics, it is not so in assigning to them a chronology. To whatever 

 people they may be attributed they are valuable as facts; and 



