ART. 14 FIEE-MAKING APPAEATUS HOUGH 61 



together by Bancroft,^'' were accurate with regard to the stones used. 

 All the other details are correct, but they say they took two pieces of 

 quartz, rubbed them with sulphur, and struck them together. It is 

 well known that pieces of quartz even when rubbed with sulphur 

 will not strike a spark of sufficient heat to cause ignition. The 

 pieces used must have been pyritiferous quartz as noticed by L. M. 

 Turner. 



To summarize, the following facts arise out of the foregoing con- 

 siderations of the flint and pyrites method: 



(1) It is very ancient, inferring from the few reliable finds of 

 pyrites and flint in juxtaposition. 



(2) Its distribution is among high northern tribes, both Eskimo 

 and Indian. 



(3) As far as known, its range is limited to this area, only one 

 other instance coming to our notice, that of the Fuegians. 



2. Flint and steel. — The flint and pyrites method is the ancestor of 

 the flint and steel. The latter method came in with the iron age. 

 It is found in the early settlements of that period. A steel for strik- 

 ing fire was found in the pile dwellings of the Ueberlingen See.^° The 

 Archeological Department of the Museum has a specimen of a 

 strike-a-light of the early age of iron in Scandinavia. It is a flat, 

 oval quartz stone with a groove around the edge; it is thought to be 

 for holding a strap by which it could be held up and struck along the 

 flat surface with the steel. It is scored on these surfaces. The spec- 

 imen in the Smithsonian is from the national museum at Stockholm, 

 In Egypt it is believed to have been used for a long period, though 

 there is no data at hand to support the conclusion.^^ In China it 

 has been in use for many centuries. Chinese history, however, goes 

 back to the use of sticks of wood. The hriquet must have been car- 

 ried nearly everywhere by early commerce from the ancient countries 

 around the Mediterranean, as it was into new lands by later commerce. 



Many persons remember the tinder box that was taken from its 

 warm nook beside the fireplace whenever a light was wanted; the 

 matches tipped with sulphur used to start a blaze from the glowing 

 tinder are also familiar to the older generation. The tinder boxes in 

 use in this country were just like those in England from time imme- 

 morial down to 50 years ago. (Fig. 44.) Edward Lovett, of Croydon, 

 England, who has studied this matter thoroughly, calls attention to 

 the resemblance of the old English tinder flints to the neolithic scrap- 

 ers. These scrapers, picked up at Brandon, can scarcely be discrim- 

 inated from those made at the present time at that place, and there 



•• Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 1, p. 91. 

 «« Keller. Swiss Lake Dwellings, pi. 28, flg. 29. 



•'Sir J. W.Dawson gives an interesting account of the strike-a-light flints used in Egypt in 1844, in 

 Modem Science in Bible Lands, p. 30 



