108 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
for going there at the first, I now wrote to the Marchioness of Down- 
shire on the subject, and had the honour of an invitation to be present 
at excavations which were about to be made. The object of these ex- 
cavations was the examination of the black layer, and the result was 
fairly satisfactory. We dug up several cores, flakes, and fragments of 
pottery out of the black layer at the place where i had obtained the 
dressed flakes and fine stone hatchet; but, though there was abundant 
evidence of human workmanship in all that was turned out, no object 
of much interest was obtained, except one beautiful arrow-head, which 
was found by Lady Arthur Hill, a short distance from where we were 
digging. We tried other places, and obtained several objects worthy 
of notice, among which was an excellent hammer stone with abraided 
ends, showing much use in hammering, and having a circular pit on 
one side. At last we were fortunate enough to find a place which 
must have been the site of an ancient dwelling-place. On following 
the layer we saw it become thicker and darker in colour, and pieces of 
pottery, fragments of bone, hammer stones, cores, and flakes were at 
the same time being turned out. The work was now closely watched 
by Lord Arthur Hill and myself, and everything that came out was 
carefully examined. At last, when we had reached the thickest and 
darkest part of the layer, we found an anvil stone, weighing several 
pounds, and pitted in two or three places, and a hammer stone with 
abraided ends lying beside it. In close association with these were 
also cores and flakes. The falls of sand obliged us to give over, but 
we considered that the result of our digging was most satisfactory. 
The objects were not in themselves very valuable, but they were highly 
instructive. They were evidently the humble stock-in-trade of an 
ancient flint implement maker. 
Of the various implements, scrapers are by far the most abundant. 
Tf used for scraping skins for clothing and taking food from bones, we 
can easily conceive that they would be numerous. Each person would 
be constantly requiring one; and if we only count the number of 
scrapers already found, which must be from fifteen hundred to two 
thousand, it would show a considerable population for the district 
around Dundrum. But it is probable that, besides being in daily use, 
they would be manufactured for the purpose of barter. They vary 
greatly in size, none of them being very large like some of those found 
at Ballintoy. A few are of medium size, or about one and a-half to 
two inches long, but the majority are much smaller, and some are not 
longer than the nail of the little finger. Figs. 1, 2, 4, and 6 show 
some of these full size. A great number appear to have been hastily 
made, and show portions of the outside crust of the flint-pebble from 
which they were struck off, but there are still quite a large number 
which show as neat and careful workmanship as any arrow-head. 
The poorest, however, generally show that careful dressing of the 
edge into a circular form so peculiar to scrapers. As regards size 
the contrast between Ballintoy and Dundrum is very marked. In 
the one place the flint is at hand, the implements are all large, and 
