in the Western Isles of Scotland. 165 



the Littorina-Tapes depression, amounting in the Kristiania region to 

 about 70 metres, gave opportunities for the exposure of wide areas of 

 land during recovery, and so facilitated correlation with the distribution 

 of the implements. In the British Isles the corresponding depression, 

 that of the so-called ' 25-foot beach ; , was relatively trifling in amount. 

 The difficulty of employing the recession of the shoreline as a means 

 of dating the implements is therefore enormously increased. Never- 

 theless it has been found possible to make certain advances in this 

 direction. As early as 1869 Du Nojer 1 showed that in the north-east 

 of Ireland the gravels of the ' 25-foot' raised beach, which has there 

 an altitude of 18 or 20 feet above the present shoreline, abounded in 

 flint implements. He pointed out that these implements were of 

 a rather rude type, and contrasted them with the more perfect forms 

 found on the surface in various localities, the latter including 

 beautifully shaped arrow or javelin heads with barbs. He concluded 

 that the men who made the first-mentioned ruder implements lived 

 during the formation of the raised beach, while the more perfect types 

 he regarded as being indicative of much greater skill and as being 

 later in age. 



Doubt having been cast on Du Noyei"'s statement that the implements 

 were actually contained in the gravel of the raised beach, a committee 

 of the Belfast Naturalists Field Club was appointed in the year 1886 

 to make excavations in the famous raised gravel spit in Larne Harbour, 

 county Antrim, with the object of putting this point to the test. The 

 final report 2 of this committee, drawn up by R. LI. Praeger in 1889, 

 proved that near the landward end of the spit the gravel contained 

 implements to a depth of 19 feet from its surface, that is, throughout 

 almost its entire thickness, a fine example of a rude axe-head 

 being found at a depth of 11 feet from the surface. More recently 

 Messrs. Coffey & Praeger 3 have carried out a more extended series 

 of investigations into the Neolithic deposits of the North of Ireland, 

 and have succeeded in establishing the important fact that the elevation 

 of the land which brought the beach into its present position was 

 almost entirely, if not quite, completed during Neolithic times. This 

 has been effected by a determination of the levels of the Neolithic 

 floors in the sand-dunes which overlie the raised beach gravels of 

 Whitepark Bay on the north coast of Antrim and Port Stewart in 

 Londonderry. It has also been proved by them in confirmation of 

 Du Noyer's idea of an earlier and later stage of culture that the industry 

 at these sites is quite distinct in character from that of the Larne 

 beach and of a more advanced type. The nature of the flaking is 

 somewhat different and polished axe-heads have been found in all the 

 localities examined, whereas those obtained from the\ Larne gravels 

 never show any attempt at polishing. 



It is very remarkable that the rough-hewn axe-heads of the Larne 



1 G. V. Du Noyer, "On Flint Flakes from Carrickfergus and Larne": 

 Q.J.G.S., vol. xxv, p. 48, 1869. 



2 Proe. Belfast Nat. Field Club (2), iii, pp. 198-210, 1890. 



3 George Coffey & E. Lloyd Praeger, " The Larne Eaised Beach, a Con- 

 tribution to the Neolithic History of the North of Ireland" : Proc. Boy. Irish 

 Acad., vol. xxv, section C, p. 146, 1904. 



