SINKERS. 87 



Sinkers in their simplest, I am almost tempted to say natural, form are 

 like that in possession of the fisherman mentioned by Dr. Mitchell, namely, 

 naturally perforated nodules of flint, which, according to Dr. Klemm, "are so 

 frequent and sometimes of such large size on the shores of Heligoland and 

 Riigen, that the inhabitants use them as net-weights and even as anchors."* 

 There are several net-sinkers and anchor-stones of this kind in the Berlin 

 Provincial Museum, one of the latter having been obtained by Dr. Friedel in 

 the Island of Riigen from a fisherman who actually used it as an anchor :\ Such 

 weights doubtless were employed in very early times ; but, of course, no one would 

 attempt to speculate on the antiquity of this class of relics, or rather on the time 

 in which they were utilized. Some of these natural formations considered as 

 sinkers may in reality never have been applied to any use by man. 



Mr. John Evans, having described the grooved hammers found in Great 

 Britain, continues as follows : 



EIG. 114. Stone sinker. Burns. 



" Closely connected in form and character with the mining hammers, though 

 as a rule much smaller in size, and in all probability intended for a totally differ- 

 ent purpose, are the class of stone objects of which Fig. 149 (here Fig. 114) 

 gives a representation, reproduced from the 'Archaeological Journal.' This 

 specimen was found with two others at Burns, near Ambleside, Westmoreland ; 

 and another, almost precisely similar in size and form, was found at Perry's 

 Leap, and is preserved in the Museum of Antiquities at Alnwick Castle. 

 Another, from Westmoreland, is in the Mayer Collection at Liverpool, and they 

 have, I believe, been found in some numbers in that district. A stone of the 

 same character, but more elaborately worked, having somewhat acorn-shaped 

 ends, was found by the Hon. W. 0. Stanley, F. S. A., at Old Geir, Anglesea. 

 They were oi'iginally regarded as hammer-stones, but such as I have examined 

 are made of a softer stone than those usually employed for hammers, and they 



* Klemm: Allgemeino Culturwissenschaft ; Werkzeuge und Waffen ; Leipzig, 1854; p. 12. 

 t Friedel: Fiihrer durch die Fischerei-Abtheilung ; p. 1. 



