103 



appearance, in fact, ia such as to induce any one, not cognizant of the 

 circumstances of their discovery, to pronounce them at onco to be of 

 recent fabrication, and, from the precision with which the direction of 

 the fi'actures is given, that they were produced by the most perfect 

 appliances of modern ingenuity. 



The accompanying lithogi-aph, representing them of their exact size, is 

 sufficient to show by how few strokes their shape was produced. Having 

 obtained a flake from a flint of considerable size, the smooth pla.ne of 

 fracture from which is shown on the under side in jig. 2, two other 

 strokes would seem to have jDroduced the slojDing surfaces on the 

 sides, shown in jig. 3, the central portion representing the worn and 

 discoloured surface of the larger mass from which it was originally 

 detached. It will be observed that these specimens ai-e all of the rudest 

 type, and it is probable that the peculiar colour of the largest has been 

 produced by fire. As little appears to be known respecting the manu- 

 facture of such flints as we still use, the following remarks may be found 

 of some interest in connection with the subject. 



It is not to be supposed that the men who made these flint instruments 

 used the means applied by modern gun-flint makers ; but that they had 

 arrived at an equal degree of knowledge as to the kind of stone which would 

 suit their purpose, or not, from observations forced upon them by long 

 experience, is certain. The manufacture of gun-flints has been a secret 

 in our own times, and the signs by which the flints fit for this purpose 

 were chosen, have not been generally known imtil M. Dolomieu published 

 an account of the method practised in France some years since, in the 

 "Memoire de I'lnstitute Rationale des Sciences," from which it appears 

 that only large flints, varying in weight from two to twenty pounds, were 

 made use of. Their colour should be uniform, theii' fractm-e perfectly 

 smooth and equal throughout, and (as in the case before us) slightly 

 conchoidal, the last property being the most essential ; as upon it 

 depends the facility with which the nodules are divided ; wliilst their 

 transpai-ency shoiild permit of letters being read through a flake of a 

 quarter of a line in thickness, when laid close upon the paper. Flints 

 which do not readily exhibit these characters are rejected as intractable, 

 but where they are otherwise, an expei-t workman, by the aid of " sevei-al 

 hammers and a chisel," can make a thousand in the space of three days. 

 We need scarcely remark that, with the exception of a few small scattered 

 fragments found in the gravel of the vale, no flintswhateverarefound within 

 a distance of many miles of the county, and that the larger instrument 

 before us is a flake from one of considerable size, will appear from its 

 inspection. The circumstance of the bones of animals, which have pi obably 



