212 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
implements found inland in the north of Ireland. If rudeness of 
workmanship be taken as a test of their age, I would say that 
these were the first efforts of man at forming flint tools, and that 
they were much older than the finely-finished implements of the 
paleolithic age found in the English and Continental river-gravels. 
I have one pointed implement, of the kind which comes nearest to 
some of the spear-shaped objects of neolithic age, found at Holywood, 
Co. Down, which shows the style of workmanship I refer to. It is 
four and a-half inches long, and one side is finished with three or four 
bold strokes. It has not suffered much from rolling, as it was found 
embedded in the stiff red clay, and has been stained all over a deep 
reddish brown, which gives it a very handsome appearance. (See 
Fig. 5, Plate xv.). 
The flakes, cores, and implements, as seen in sections of the raised 
beach, show signs of having been exposed on the shore for a long time 
previous to becoming embedded among the gravel. They have under- 
gone rolling on the beach, and are covered even to the small flakes, 
which were evidently dislodged by striking against other stones, by a 
white, deep, porcellanous crust. As far as my experience goes, this 
crust only forms on flints that are exposed for a considerable time, 
and not on those which are buried up after being broken. I have 
found flints in other places which have the porcellanous crust on the 
exposed side, and are comparatively fresh on that which rested on 
the ground; and I have in my possession paleolithic implements 
showing the one side much more deeply encrusted than the other ; but 
the flints of the raised beach are crusted all over, and much more 
deeply than the flints of other parts of Ireland, or indeed than any 
paleolithic implements I have ever seen. 
I conclude therefore that the flint objects found at Larne and other- 
places where there are remnants of the old beach have lain exposed for 
along time, and have undergone much shifting and many changes before 
being included in the mass of gravel. This, I think, would partly ac- 
count for the scarcity of bones in the formation, as the bones of the 
animals used as food would be too long exposed before being covered up 
to have a chance of preservation. I have made a very thorough search 
for bones, but without success, and I am therefore without any test of 
that kind in enabling me to come to a conclusion regarding the age 
of the implements. A Mammoth’s tooth, now in the collection of the 
Rev. Canon Grainger, has been found in the neighbourhood, but 
it may have had no connexion with the raised beach. It was, 
however, found not far from the shore, near a place where remains 
of the old sea beach are still to be found. 
In taking a survey of the raised beach I find it extends at Larne 
for a considerable distance inland, and its surface is now made up of 
several large arable fields, some of them at this moment bearing a 
promising crop of wheat. I was induced from observing this to 
examine the soil, and found that it was not of the sandy or gravelly 
nature one would expect on a sea beach, but was made up largely 
of clay, and would be what I should call a clayey loam. The stones 
of the soil, besides the flints which are turned up to the surface, are 
