IMPLEMENTS IN THE SHELL-MOUNDS. 195 



would not be likely to abound in the Kjokkenmoddings, any 

 more than works of art, or objects of value in modern dust- 

 heaps ; still I confess I should have expected that fragments 

 of these instruments, recognisable to us, though useless to 

 their original owners, would have been more numerous than, 

 in reality, they appear to be. 



In addition to the five hundred rude implements, described 

 by Prof. "Worsaae, as having been found at Meilgaard during 

 the king's visit, I myself obtained a hundred and forty flint 

 flakes, with about fifty other implements, in the visit to 

 this celebrated locality which I made last year under the 

 guidance of Prof. Steenstrup. To these, again, must be 

 added many which had previously been collected by M. 

 Olsen, and the members of the Kjokkenmodding committee; 

 and yet among so large a number of instruments of various 

 kinds there is only one which in any respect resembles the 

 well- worked implements of the tumuli. So, again, at Havelse 

 only a single fragment of a polished axe has been found 

 among more than a thousand objects of the ruder kind. It 

 might, however, fairly be urged that in such a comparison, 

 neither the flakes nor "slingstones" ought to be brought into 

 consideration ; in this case, and if we were to count the axes 

 only, the numbers would be immensely diminished. 



There is also much weight in Prof. Steenstrup's argument 

 derived from the flint flakes, and he has not at all exaggerated 

 the skill shown in their manufacture. Their edges, how- 

 ever, are so sharp that it would, I cannot help thinking, 

 be very difficult to distinguish a cut produced by a flake, 

 from one made by a ground axe. On the other hand, the 

 alleged absence of rude implements in the Stone age bar- 

 rows has been satisfactorily explained by Professor Steen- 

 strup. In this country it might be argued from the re- 

 searches of so intelligent an antiquary as Sir R. Colt Hoare, 

 that rude implements were never, or very rarely, found in 



