3io 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



During the early part of the present century 

 much doubt was thrown on the theory that these 

 worked flints were really the productions of early 

 man, and Boucher, of Paris, had a hard fight, from 

 1836-41, to prove that such must have been the 

 case. In 1858 the Brixham Cave was examined by 

 a Commission from the Royal So- 

 ciety, which reported that the flint 

 implements found there were un- 

 doubtedly the work of man at a far 

 distant period. Since then the ques- 

 tion has been regarded as definitely 

 settled. Sir John Lubbock divides 

 the implements of the stone age into 

 two great classes — the Neolithic, or 

 those found on or near the surfaces ; 

 and the Paleolithic, or those found in 

 the caves and alluvial deposits. The 

 palaeolithic are much rougher in workmanship, 

 and are considered to be much older than the 

 neolithic. 



Flint implements were formed either by chipping 

 from fragments of flint picked up on the surface, or, 

 as in the majority of cases, from blocks dug out of 

 the chalk. The simplest form is the flake (fig. i.), 

 and much light is thrown on the method by which 

 these were probably manufactured by watching 

 the modern gun-flint makers at work. The flakes 

 are first split off from the selected block or core, 

 and are afterwards shaped into gun-flints by 

 another hand. A circular-headed hammer is used 

 to remove the flakes, and its blows on the edge of 

 the core produces the protuberance which is to be 

 seen on all artificial flakes, and which is called the 



Fig. iv. 



Fig. v. 



bulb of percussion. The cores from which flakes were 

 chipped are occasionally picked up, and one found 

 by Mr. Brooks near Thetford is shown in fig. ii. 

 These flakes are found in the neighbourhood of 

 ancient encampments and barrows. This is not 

 surprising, as they were themselves well adapted 

 for cutting and scraping, and were, moreover, the 

 first stage in the manufacture of arrowheads and 

 other implements ; and while many were used for 

 that purpose, many more must have been thrown 

 away as unsuitable. The use that could be made 

 of such flakes is illustrated by the purposes to 

 which they are applied by modern savages. The 



Australians use flint flakes to form the heads of 

 javelins, and minute flakes are employed as the 

 teeth of rough saws. In Mexico, sharp flakes of 

 obsidian are used to shave with, these razors being 

 thrown away as soon as they became blunt. 

 Flakes were well adapted for scraping the surface 

 of bone or wood, and Sir John Evans asserts that 

 in many cases he has noticed the signs of such 

 wear. 



Among the implements most frequently met with 

 near Brandon is that form of worked flake to which 

 the name of scraper has been given. They were 

 probably formed by carefully chipping round the 

 edges of a good broad flake so as to form a fairly 

 sharp bevelled edge. They were formed in various 

 shapes and were usually about two inches in 

 diameter. Those most frequently found have one 

 end rounded into semi-circular form, the other end, 

 which was probably fixed into a wooden handle, 

 being left un worked (fig.iii., a). Occasionally they 

 are longer and more finger-shaped, and a few have 

 been picked up having the 

 shape of a disc with sharp 

 edges (fig. iii., c). In fig. 

 iii., b, a scraper with an 

 indented edge is shown. 

 This was possibly used for 

 scraping the wood for bows. 



Sir J. Evans proved that 

 it was possible to produce 

 the round margin of a 

 scraper by successive blows 

 of a piece of flint on a 

 flake. The blows of the 

 stone hammer were brought 

 to bear a slight distance 



within the margin of the flake, and the block of 

 stone on which the flake was placed acted as a 

 stop to bring the hammer up sharply as soon 

 as the fragment had been chipped from the edge. 



There can be but little doubt that the name 

 "scraper" correctly describes one of the uses 

 of these instruments, and that they were employed 

 either with or without handles for preparing the 

 skins of animals. In fact, the modern Esquimaux 

 use a flint implement of very similar appearance, 

 fixed in an ivory handle, for scraping skins. It 

 has also been suggested that these scrapers were 

 used as a means of obtaining fire, and the curious 

 resemblance they bear to the modern French 

 " strike-a- lights," extensively used before the 

 introduction of matches, has been urged in support 

 of this view. Perhaps the most favourable 

 evidence was the discovery in 1870 of a scraper 

 and a nodule of iron pyrites with a groove in 

 it lying together in a tumulus. 



In addition to being rounded into scrapers, 

 flakes were also trimmed on one or both sides 

 into various cutting or piercing tools, or missiles. 



Fig. vi. 



