662 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



to change my views, and I still hold that the old surface and its 

 contents belong to the IS'eolithic Period. I believe we are justified in 

 concluding from the evidence I have given that the whole coast of 

 Ireland was occupied in the Stone Age by inhabitants who made their 

 implements of whatever kind of hard rock came to hand, flint if it 

 could be obtained, but if that were scarce or not found in any district, 

 then chert, quartzite, or such other crystalline rocks as the place 

 supplied. Hammer-stones and anvil-stones were usually made of 

 water-worn pebbles, of quartzite, or other hard rocks, and in all 

 the prehistoric sites I have described, these two kinds of implements 

 have a general likeness. 



I should state that my contention that the remains found in the 

 old surface belong to the Newer Stone Age has been called in question 

 by the Hev. G. E,. Buick, ll.d., andtheEev. Leonard Hasse, and both 

 of them have stated that they consider it doubtful whether we ever 

 had a Stone Age in Ireland. I do not object to criticism as it makes 

 one examine his ground carefully, but in this case I think I can hardly 

 take my critics seriously as they employ arguments which are not 

 only at variance with the views expressed by myself, but with those 

 held by archgeologists in general. I have answered my two friends 

 very fully elsewhere,^ and therefore need not refer to the matter 

 further at present. 



It is the opinion of several authorities that the heaps of shells 

 found in different places round the coast may differ greatly in point of 

 age_. which is also my own opinion, as the practice of using shell-fish for 

 food and throwing the shells in a heap has continued down to the present 

 day. I have seen heaps of this kind near dwelling-houses at Port- 

 stewart, and other parts round the coast where people were poor, and 

 shell-fish plentiful. But what distinguishes the Stone Age remains 

 from more recent accumulations is the old surface with its flakes, 

 hammer- stones, and other stone objects, together with bones of large 

 animals which have been broken and split for extraction of the marrow. 

 In recent accumulations such characteristic objects are absent. Besides 

 the present inhabitants appear to have no knowledge or tradition of 

 those accumulations which I regard as ancient, having been formed 

 by relatives or immediate forefathers. On my inquiring from a 

 very old woman who was present when I was digging a portion of 

 the old surface on Keel Strand if she knew who formed the heap 

 of shells, she answered that it was the Danes. They speak of the 



1 Journal Eoy. Soc. Antiq., vol. iv., Sth. Ser., p. 243. 



