144 On the Paleolithic Flint Implements from Knowle. 
















specimen, too, a small part of the old patina has been left, which 
has the glassy coating on it and all the inequalities plainly marked. 
One other explanation has been suggested, and this has not the 
strong objection there is to those already given, .c., that the polish 
may be due to a liquid opaline silica (hyaline) having been deposited 
on the chalcedonoid surface of the flint. There is, of course, the 
great difficulty with this suggestion that there is nothing to account 
for the presence of the opaline silica. 1t is necessary to realise 
the presence of some geyserous spring rising in this small locality 
and overspreading the flints with which it came in contact. The 
polish does occur on both worked and unworked flints, and is 
certainly confined to a limited area, probably only two or three 
yards square, and, in spite of its difficulties, this explanation is the 
one that I have felt bound to accept, the absence of all traces of 
friction rendering the acceptance of either of the others impossible. 
The Knotole Polish. 
As regards the polish seen on the Knowle flints, both worked 
and unworked, and referred to in the above papers by the Messrs. 
Cunnington and Mr. 8. B. Dixon, it may be worth noticing the 
fact that I have carefully looked through, during the last two 
years, several museums—including the British Museum and the 
Blackmore Museum, at Salisbury—in the vain endeavour to find 
anything at all resembling the glassy polish of these Wiltshire 
flints. The British Museum has some specimens from Egypt with — 
a certain polish, but this polish is not in any degree comparable 
with that found at Knowle. The only examples that I have ever — 
been able to find, or hear of, possessing a polish which can be 
compared with that on the flints in question is to be found on two — 
fine specimens of “spades,” or “hoes,” from South America in the 
magnificent collection of flint implements from all parts of the 
world deposited at the Guildhall Museum at Winchester. They 
