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TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 973 
munication, as ample details of these discoveries are published in the author’s work, 
‘The Lake-Dwellings of Europe, in which the subject is discussed under the 
title of ‘ Ancient Marine Dwellings,’ 
3. Some Neolithic Details. By H. Cottey Marcu, M.D. 
Ten years ago, while a scrutiny was being made of a number of tiny flakes that 
had been picked up with the only thought that they proved the existence of a 
veritable Neolithic floor, it was perceived that some of the fragments were, in truth, 
beautifully wrought after a fixed type or pattern. 
At that time these minute stone implements, from the hills about Rochdale, 
were the smallest that had been found in any part of the world. Since then pre- 
cisely similar tools have been met with in India, and last summer the author 
discovered some in the Isle of Man. 
They are of three principal types: (1) those that taper to a point; (2) those 
that are semilunar ; and (3) those that are shouldered like a penknife. Some of 
them do not measure more than } inch in length. 
The pointed ones are unmistakably awls, and would serve to drill eyes in bone 
needles, and to puncture holes in the hide through which the needle might pass. 
The semilunar implement can hardly be anything else than a fine saw ; it is rather 
rare, and it sometimes shades off into the shouldered form. Those that are 
shouldered like a penknife are very numerous, and have this peculiarity, that when 
they are placed with their flat surface downwards the hump or angle is on the 
left-hand side. It has been suggested that these implements were used to con- 
stitute the teeth of a harpoon. But it seems unlikely that any dwellers on the 
flanks of the Pennine chain or in the caves of the Vindhya Hills of India could 
have had much opportunity of using a harpoon; whilst the extraordinary delicacy 
of workmanship which these tools display, their remarkable uniformity of style, 
and the careful serration of their straight edge strongly suggest that they were 
mounted on handles for cutting and engraving in the manufacture of implements 
of bone, horn, and wood, such as needles, arrow-shafts, and possibly combs. These 
minute stone tools have been made of flint, of chert, of agate, and of quartz. 
It has been said that the bulb of percussion cannot be produced on quartz. The 
author showed flakes of quartz, quartzite, greenstone, chert, hematite, and even 
of chalk, all of which presented a well-marked bulb of percussion. They were 
found on the Neolithic floor. 
Pieces of chalk are often found in tumuli of the Stone Age. Some of these, as 
well as fragments of graphite and of hematite that have striations on two sides, 
such as would be caused by rubbing them on a slab of sandstone, were exhibited. 
The substances were used as pigments. 
Discarding the negative colours, black and white, and assuming it to be the 
fact, as generally stated, that of the positive colours, the first used was red, the 
second yellow, and the third blue, the question arises, Can any reason be assigned 
for this order of choice in early decoration? ‘The modern artist’s quarrel with 
Nature is a double one. He says that she is badly lighted, and that she is too 
green. Now, it is certain that if we look intently at a green figure, and then cast 
the eyes on a neutral surface, we see the same figure zz ved. To those who behold 
only the green of Nature a red spectrum is always potentially present. Their 
retina needs this complementary colour as a refreshment, and the primitive artist 
employs it in unconscious obedience to a physiological law. Yellow would come 
next, as the most restorative colour, and blue last. 
On certain Neolithic materials shiny lines and streaks may be seen. Some 
rsons think them due to blown sand, or to the friction of siliceous grasses. 
r. Blackmore, of Salisbury, thinks they are caused by worms—that the stone 
happened to lie in a worm-track, and that the worm, by perpetually passing and 
repassing, polished it. A microscopic examination shows that in some cases the 
glazed mark is produced, not by friction, but by a deposit of silica, and it is often 
more apparent in the depressions of an irregular surface than on its elevations, 
Examples of it on flint, chert, quartzite, and hematite were exhibited. 
