27 
“more or less rolled and worn at the edges by drift action— 
‘some very much so.” 
Dr Evans is of opinion that “in the case of the unpolished 
“implements of the Neolithic Period, which most nearly ap- 
*¢ proach those of the Paleolithic in form, it will, as a rule, be 
*‘ found that the former are intended for cutting at the broader 
‘end, and the latter at the narrower or more pointed end. Even 
‘‘in the nature of the chipping a practised observer will, in 
“‘ most instances, discern a difference.” 
He further remarks—“If it be uncertain to how late a 
“‘period these Neolithic implements remained in use in this 
‘¢ country, it is still more uncertain to how early a period their 
“introduction may be referred. If we take the possible limits 
“in either direction, the date into which they fell into disuse 
“becomes approximately fixed as compared with that at which 
“they may have first come into use in Britain, for we may 
“‘safely say that the use of bronze must have been known in 
“this country 500 or 600 years B.C., and therefore that at that 
“time cutting tools of stone began to be superseded; while by 
“A.D. 1100 it will be agreed on all hands they were no longer 
“in use. 
“We can, therefore, fix the date of their desuetude 
“within, at the outside, two thousand years; but who can tell 
“within any such limits the time when a people acquainted 
“with the use of polished stone implements first settled in this 
_ “island, or when the process of grinding them may have been 
“< first developed among native tribes? The long period which 
“intervened between the deposit of the River Gravels (con- 
‘taining so far as at present known, implements chipped only 
‘and not polished) and the first appearance of polished hatchets, 
“is not in this country so well illustrated as in France; but 
“even there all that can be said as to the introduction of 
‘polished stone hatchets is, that it took place subsequently to 
“the accumulation, in the caves of the South of France, of the 
“deposits belonging to an age when reindeer constituted one 
“of the principal articles of food of the cave-dwellers. 
