Knowies—On Flint Implements. 209 
XXXVI.—F tint Ivetements From Tae Ratsep Brace at LARNE AND 
OTHER PARTS OF THE Norru-nast Coast or InELanp. By W. J. 
Kyowtss. (Plates XIV. and XV.) 
[ Read, June 11, 1883. ] 
I wish very briefly to draw attention to a series of flint implements 
which I have obtained from the raised beach at Larne, and similar 
deposits at other places along the adjoining coast. 
Various authors have referred to the ‘‘ worked flints”’ of the 
raised beaches in their writings; but there seems to be a difference of 
opinion regarding these flint objects, some calling them “‘ palaeolithic,”’ 
and others ‘‘ neolithic”; but the weight of opinion is decidedly in 
favour of the latter. There is also a difference of opinion as to whether 
the worked flints are found mixed up with the gravel of the raised 
beach, or only scattered over the surface; but any attentive observer 
will have no difficulty in finding, even in the deepest section, that the 
flints extend to the lowest layer. I can refer to flints in my col- 
lection, showing human workmanship, which I obtained at different 
times during the past ten years at depths of eight, ten, and twelve 
feet. 
The raised beach at Larne, as described by Mr. Hull,” is elevated 
fifteen to twenty feet above high-water mark. Good sections of it can 
be seen near the harbour where the railways pass through it, and 
also on each side of a new street which has recently been opened. 
Along the shore of parts of Island Magee, the coast northwards from 
Larne, and on both sides of Belfast Lough, there are remains of simi- 
lar implement-bearing gravels, but all these have suffered greatly 
from denudation, and the gravels with the worked flints which they 
contained are now spread over the present shore. The material thus 
spread out has afforded excellent opportunities for examination, and 
several implements have been obtained from it. 
As far as I am aware, all the objects which have been hitherto 
found in the raised beach, and described as implements, were in reality 
only flakes—artificially produced flakes, no doubt, but not specially 
dressed into any form of implement;? but several members of the 
Ballymena Naturalists’ Field Club have made these old beaches a 
special study during the past year, and have succeeded in obtain- 
ing a considerable number of implements of a higher character than 
the mere flake. I may mention the Rev. Canon Grainger, M.R.I.A., 
and Rev. George Raphael Buick, M.A., as being the most active 
members in making these researches. Mr. Buick, who had favourable 
1 William Gray, M.R.I.A., Belfast Naturalist Field Club Report, 1876-1877. 
Edward Hull, M.A., F.R.S., Physical Geology and Geography of Ireland, pp. 110, 118. 
William Gray, M.R.I.A., Royal Historical and Archeological Association of Lreland, 
4th ser., vol. 5, July, 1879. John Evans, D.C.L., F.R.S., British Association 
Report, 1878, p. 522. 
2 Physical Geology and Geography of Ireland, p. 110. 
3 The objects found by G. V. Du Noyer, M.R.I.A., and which I have seen 
in the Royal College of Science, are not what I should call dressed implements. 
