STONE HATCHETS. 



ments more especially intended and adapted for cutting 

 purposes. 



Many of the flakes were certainly never intended to serve 

 as knives, but were chipped up into saws, awls, or arrow- 

 heads. Many savages use flint, or chert, in this manner, 

 even at the present day, and the Mexicans in the time of 

 Cortez used precisely similar fragments of obsidian. 



Next to flint flakes, axes, wedges, or celts, are, perhaps, of 

 most importance. The largest and finest specimens are found 

 in Denmark ; one in my possession, of beautiful white flint, is 

 FIG. 71. 13in. long, IJin. thick, and 3Jin. in 



/^lll\ breadth. The Seeland axes have very 



IM. /18k often, indeed generally, perpendicular 



sides; in Jutland a large proportion 

 have sloping sides; this is also gene- 

 rally the case in other parts of North- 

 Western Europe. In Switzerland, how- 

 ever, the axes, which are much smaller 

 than those from Denmark, have per- 

 pendicular sides (fig. 

 120). The common 

 Danish axe or wedge 

 is figured in pi. 1, fig. 

 1. Figs. 71 and 72, 

 represent forms which, 

 though rare in Seeland, 

 are common in other 

 parts of Europe. Those 

 found in Denmark are 

 sometimes polished, but 

 almost, if not quite, as 

 often, left rough. On 

 the contrary, in other parts of North- Western Europe, the 

 axes are usually ground to a more or less smooth surface. 



Fio. 72. 



Stone Axes Ireland. 



