102 



Besides the objects now described, several others have been 

 met with in the County, such as rounded flints or flint balls ; 

 these have been called Sling Stones, but we incline to the belief 

 that instead of having been used for either the sling or balista 

 they were in reality the hammers which were employed to strike 

 off flakes in fashioning flints. The ovate flints and hard stones 

 were undoubtedly used for this purpose. These forms both 

 occur somewhat plentifully at Jordan Hill, near Weymouth. 



Thin flakes, used as Knives, or notched for Saivs, of various 

 sizes are found everywhere over the farm ; some flints squared 

 up, as though for different tools, are likewise common. 



It should be remarked that over the farm we not unfrequently 

 meet with forms squared up like roughly formed gun flints. 

 These have at one end — the flat one — the evidence of recent 

 fracture. These may be accounted for from the fact communi- 

 cated to us by an old gentleman of the parish, who assured us 

 that when he was out shooting, if any accident occurred to his 

 gim flint, he had often picked up a flint in the field (perhaps an 

 archaic implement), broken off the end, and fitted it on the spot. 



This brings down the use of flints to our own time. 



It is not likely that gun flints will be again used, and flint 

 tools and weapons have passed away in this country, though not 

 in different parts of the world. Fig. 1 1 represents an arrow- 

 head brought from India, in some parts of which they are still 

 used as of old, and we have in om' possession Celts from both 

 India and Australia. In the latter, and in new Zealand, these 

 implements, we are told, are stiU in use to fashion the dug-out 

 boats. 



We have now, perhaps, said enough to convince our members 

 that many of these articles point to a time when metals were 

 scarcely, if at all, in use ; at the same time we are not to suppose 

 that they were abandoned when metals began to be employed. 



In all probability we have still much to learn about these 

 objects, and it has been on this account that our pockets for 



