THE USE OF FLINT BLADES TO WORK PINE WOOD. 605 
These experiments clearly showed me with what astonishing easi- 
ness and relative rapidity the pine could be felled with these blades. 
With the primitive implements one is able, not only to cut large trees, 
but fo perform the work of less complicated carpentry, without the 
cutting edge becoming very readily deteriorated. If one considers, in 
addition, that the carpenters of antiquity were particularly skillful and 
clever in the use of blades, one can with reason now consider that these 
were used as “edged tools,” and the experiments here described have 
convinced me that the large blades were employed as axes. 
