FLINTFINDS. 81 



discovery of more than sixty flint cores. Those, on the con- 

 trary, which even at the present day are under water, must 

 have been so in old times, and as there are no traces of Lake- 

 habitations in Denmark, it seems the most natural suppo- 

 sition that they were the places where the fishermen used to 

 drag their nets. It is still usual to choose particular spots 

 for this purpose, and it is evident that many of the rude 

 objects used in fishing, especially of the stones employed 

 as net- weights, would there be lost. The objects discovered 

 are just what might have been expected under these cir- 

 cumstances. They consist of irregular flint chippings, net- 

 weights or slingstones, flakes, scrapers, awls, and axes. 



These six different classes of objects have been found in 

 most, if not all of the coastfinds, though in different pro- 

 portions. To give an idea of the numbers in which they 

 occur, I may mention that Professor Steenstrup and I 

 gathered in about an hour at Froelund, near Korsor, 141 

 flakes, 84 weights, 5 axes, 1 scraper, and about 150 flint 

 chips ; while at a similar spot, near Aarhuus in Jutland, 

 I myself picked up, in two hours and a half, 76 weights, 40 

 flakes, 39 scrapers, 17 awls, and a considerable number 

 of flint chips. 



In the sheltered and shallow fjords of Denmark, the sea 

 is generally calm, and, in many instances, a layer of sand 

 has accumulated over and thus protected the flint fragments. 

 This was the case with both the above-mentioned coastfinds, 

 one of which was exposed in draining the land, the other in 

 a railway cutting. Sometimes a change of currents will re- 

 move the light sand, and leave the heavier stones, which 

 again in other cases have lain apparently undisturbed and 

 exposed from the first ; and in such instances, the spots are 

 so thickly strewn with white flints that they may often be 

 distinguished by their color, even at a considerable distance. 



Of course, in a sea like that which surrounds our coast, 



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