CHAP. VIIL] NEOLITHIC FLINT-MINES NEAR BRANDON. 



277 



FIG. 101. Miner's Pick, 

 Grimes Graves, ^. 



their tools picks made out of stags' antlers (Fig. 101), 

 polished stone celts, which fitted to the marks in the 

 sides of the galleries, chisels of 

 bone and antler, and little cups 

 made of chalk evidently in- 

 tended to contain grease for the 

 supply of light. In one spot 

 the roof had given way, and 

 the tools -were found just as 

 they had been left at the work- 

 ing face by the miner, who 

 was prevented from returning 

 by the blocking up of the 

 gallery. 



On clearing this out, and when the end came in view, 

 " it was seen that the' flint had been worked out in three 

 places at the end, forming three hollows extending be- 

 yond the chalk face of the end of the gallery. In front 

 of two of these hollows were laid two picks, the handle 

 of each towards the mouth of the gallery, the tines 

 pointing towards each other, showing, in all probability, 

 that they had been used respectively by a right and a 

 left handed man. The day's work over, the men had 

 laid down each his tool, ready for the next day's work ; 

 meanwhile the roof had fallen in, and the picks had 

 never been recovered. I learnt from the workmen that 

 it would not have been safe to excavate farther in that 

 direction, the chalk at the point being broken up by 



the time of James the Second, in obtaining the iron ore, which made the 

 iron trade of Kent and Sussex of such importance down to the close of the 

 seventeenth century. The large woods in the neighbourhood of Hastings, in 

 the direction of Battle, Brede, and Ashburnham, mark to a great extent 

 the broken ground caused by these excavations, which cover considerable 

 areas, and render them worthless to the farmer. 



