20 STONE IMPLEMENTS, ETC., IN THE DORSET MUSEUM. 



.Moss. In these instances the celt was set in a hole made through 

 the haft-end. For an implement of war, of tree-felling, hunting, 

 or tillage, a good long handle was indispensable. From the Swiss 

 lake-villages, again, comes presumptive evidence that probably here, 

 as certainly there, celts were sometimes handled with short pieces 

 of stag's horn, to be used as chisels. Or the butt-end of the 

 horn-socket was in some cases fitted into the side of the knob of a 

 club, thus forming a ponderous axe. Again, Swiss specimens have 

 been found in which the celt is fitted into a piece of the root-end 

 of the " beam " of a stag-horn, and the brow antler retained as a 

 short haft. None of these stag-horn fittings have been found in 

 Dorset, that I know of. But one or two pieces of antler in the 

 Museum look as if they may have been intended to be so applied. 

 There is in the Cunnington Collection one celt of the sort which 

 seems intended for a withe handle, like that of a smith's punch. 

 Before passing away from this class of implements I ought perhaps 

 to say something about the possibility of using them for working 

 timber. I can quite think that many may disbelieve this. I 

 would point out two considerations. First, in ignorance of the 

 cutting qualities of iron or bronze it is likely that men would be 

 satisfied with work which to us would seem mere mangling of 

 wood. In Ireland a wooden hut has been found, preserved in peat. 

 The timbers were morticed with firmness enough, it seems. But 

 the tenons, and everything showing tool marks, proved that all had 

 been wrought with tools of a bluntness which to our thinking 

 would make them useless. Secondly, in the probably important 

 and common work of digging out canoes it is very possible that fire 

 came into play. The North American Indians, some of them, 

 thus made their flint adzes useful in canoe hollowing. They 

 lighted small fires along a log. After a time they cleared away the 

 fire and chopped out the charred timber below. Then another fire 

 and another chopping, and so on. 



ii. Evans' second class of stone implements consists of picks, 

 chisels, gouges, &c. Of gouges I do not think we have any Dorset 

 ones in. the Museum. They may be described as celts with a 



