262 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



flints, and some few of the cores from which these 

 had been struck. The whole occupied, perhaps, 

 five or six feet in each direction from where the 

 maker had sat, and it appeared as though he had 

 been interrupted in his work and might return at 

 any moment. The rubbish lay rather about the 

 edges of the spot — the cores towards the middle — 

 as if here had been the seat of seme solitary man, 

 working for his own hand. Here and there among 

 the debris, a primrose opened its modest flowers ; 

 and the whole made so pretty a picture that it 

 seemed a kind of sacrilege to disturb it. But 

 science allows no scruples of sentiment ; and I 

 proceeded to gather up some of the cores, with a 

 few handfuls of such of the chips and flakes as 

 appeared the most likely to have been detached 

 from them, in the hope that it might be possible 

 to replace some of their number. However, of the 

 hundred or so taken home for examination, one 

 only could be assigned to its proper core ; and I 

 proceeded no further with the profitless task. 



The figure 

 (No. i) in the 

 accompanying 

 illustration 

 shows one of 

 the cores 

 found ; but the 

 object has 

 been tilted for- 

 ward by the 

 photographer, 

 so that the face 

 from which the 

 flakes have 

 been struck 



is not sufficiently exhibited. It is about four 

 inches in length, and from two to two-and-a-half 

 inches in thickness ; a portion of an irregular 

 block of flint from the chalk, with some of the 

 crust remaining on the thicker end. Here and 

 there have made their appearance the brilliantly 

 shining spots, which are the first signs of the action 

 of atmospheric influences on the surface of the 

 flint, and are themselves indestructible. The 

 figure is intended to show the depressions from 

 which five flakes have been detached, by blows 

 from the top, apparently with a small punch of 

 flint, such as are occasionally found in the fields 

 near by, with points battered or broken from use. 



The implements selected for representation are 

 of late neolithic types, and the figures are about 

 one half the actual size of the objects. The spear 

 (No. 2) is three-and-a-quarter inches in length ; the 

 long arrow (No. 3), two inches, and the short arrow 

 (No. 4), having lost its tip, a little over an inch. 

 No. 3 is extremely thin and light ; No. 5 is of the 

 same form as the rarely-found crescent-shaped 

 arrows, and may perhaps have been intended for a 



Neolithic Remains from Surrey. 



javelin. There is an iron arrow of similar shape, 

 but larger, in the Guildhall Museum. No. 6 may 

 be the prototype of the modern phleme, used by 

 veterinary surgeons for bleeding cattle, by placing 

 it on the vein to be depleted, and striking it with 

 a mallet. In the present example, the butt is 

 thick, and the sharp point is produced by a little 

 secondary work at the back. The size is one-and- 

 a-quarter inches in length and breadth. The next 

 implement (No. 7) is a perfect specimen of a small 

 flint knife, in length two-and-three-quarter inches, 

 and in breadth one-and-a-quarter. The back is 

 thick, and the bevelling of the opposite side 

 produces a keen and effective edge. Other forms 

 of the knife were used in the latest neolithic period ; 

 including the semicircular " skinning-knife," which 

 survived from the earliest times. No. 8, a beautiful 

 example of a double saw for fine work, is of the 

 same length as the knife, and seven eighths of 

 an inch in greatest width. The sharp edge of 

 the knife is left untouched ; but both edges of 



the saw are 

 finely notched 

 throughou t 

 their entire 

 length, appar- 

 ently by an- 

 other sharp 

 flint. These 

 two i m p 1 e- 

 ments were 

 probablystruck 

 from the same 

 core. The next 

 and last, (No 

 9), is a little 

 hatchet or chisel, one-and-a-half inches in length 

 and in breadth of blade, but is imperfect, about 

 half the edge having been broken off. Of the 

 many forms of hatchet this is one of the least 

 common, as well as one of the oldest ; implements 

 of identical design being found of deep ochreous 

 tint and of much larger size. 



The spot where the ancient workman followed 

 his craft is not far from the site of an early 

 neolithic factory of considerable extent. The 

 making of implements seems to have been carried 

 on here for a long course of time, perhaps even as 

 late as the Roman period, for fragments of coarse 

 Roman pottery and roofing-tiles have been found 

 in the neighbourhood ; while at some spots the 

 ground is covered with chips and imperfectlj-- 

 formed implements. Very few are found showing 

 secondary work of any importance; and the 

 probability is that this was one of the many 

 stations along the outcrop of the upper chalk 

 where, during the stone age, weapons were made 

 for districts where flint was not obtainable. 

 Birchanger Road, South Norwood ; July, 1895. 



