Notes and Comments. 183 
with refreshments. Afterwards they went on to Lower Coke- 
ham, where Mr. Dillstone provided oranges, and there the 
celebration came to an end. Mr. Pullen-Burry kindly placed a 
field of flowers at the disposal of the children for their festival, 
and they were allowed to pick all the daffodils, wallflowers, 
etc., that they wanted. Mr. Archard (Schoolmaster) undertook 
the organization, and had the assistance of Miss Barrett and 
the Misses Honnywill.’ 
GUN-FLINTS. 
It is interesting at the present time, says Mr. Wilfred Mark 
,Webb in Knowledge, when the manufacture of cartridges and 
shells is of the utmost importance to the nation, to remember 
that the production of gun-flints still goes quietly on. Thou- 
sands are exported every year, particularly to tropical coun- 
tries, where more primitive methods linger or are found to be 
more convenient ; or, again, where the British Government 
sees to it that modern firearms do not get into the hands of 
the natives. There seems little doubt but that the maker of 
gun-flints, or the flint-knapper, as he is called, is carrying on 
-an industry which has continued unbroken from very early 
prehistoric times, when man first began to fashion implements 
of stone. It would appear, nevertheless, at first sight that 
there is a fallacy somewhere, and that there must have been a 
very long gap between the dying out of the flint arrowhead and 
the invention of the flint-lock musket. This is true; but it 
must be remembered that the flint in the guns was put there 
to produce sparks, and was only an adaptation of the strike-a- 
lights which all through the ages, and even within the memory 
of many persons still alive, have been used for the purpose of 
obtaining fire. There is, indeed, a considerable family likeness 
between the flints made for the tinder-box and the prehistoric 
flint implements which are known as ‘ scrapers.’ 
LINCOLNSHIRE NATURALISTS. 
The Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union Transactions (pages 
151-212), for 1914, contain Miss S. C. Stow’s presidential 
address on ‘ Plant Galls ’ and a lengthy account of ‘ The Birds 
of Lincolnshire,’ by F. L. Blathwayt. In addition are the 
reports of the general secretary and of the sectional officers, 
namely, E. A. Woodruffe-Peacock, W. Denison Roebuck, 
G. W. Mason, J. F. Musham and F. L. Blathwayt. There 
are one of two shorter notes dealing with Cakile maritima, 
‘ The Crested Lark,’ and Passer domesticus. The frontispiece 
is a portrait of the Rev. Alfred Hunt, M.A., President 1907-8, 
with the usual memoir, which is as usual inaccurately headed 
“The Presidents of the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union.’ If 
it is one of a series, the number should be given. Lincolnshire 
geologists are apparently inactive at the moment. 
1915 June 1. 
