Knowles — Prehistoric Remains, Sandhills, Coast of Ireland. 367 



Imlb of percussion and plain face on one side and dressed to a bevelled 

 -edge on the other. 



There is another paper to which I wish to refer, as it also treats of 

 the manufacture of implements. It is written by Mr. Henry Forbes, 

 iii.T)., Director of the Mayer Museum, Liverpool, and deals with 

 a large collection of over 2000 flint implements found by Mr. H. "W". 

 Seton-Karr in Egypt, and acquired by that Museum. After supplying 

 their own wants, the Museum authorities were able to sell or exchange 

 several sets of implements, of which I obtained one in exchange for 

 other objects. I have thus a selection of the implements themselves, 

 in addition to Dr. Forbes' well-produced illustrations to aid me in 

 studying them. The collection consists of axes of the JSTeolithic kind, 

 roughly chipped into shape, also knives, bracelets, flakes, cores, &c. 

 Many of the implements are formed out of a thin plate-like kind 

 of flint, which, from their thinness, and the way in which they have 

 broken in course of manufacture, show a great resemblance to the 

 objects found at Fisherstreet, county Clare. 



The Egyptian implements all seem to have been the products of 

 manufactories, as many objects are only partially made, and others 

 were broken while being shaped, as in the workshop-sites at Washing- 

 ton, and as has also happened at Fisherstreet. Some flakes and 

 cores afe'company each set of implements ; but the flakes are all of the 

 kind produced for the sake of the flake alone. There must have been 

 flakes of manufacture lying about, but these do not seem to have been 

 collected. Dr. Forbes assigns these Egyptian implements to the Xllth 

 Dynasty, or about 4500 years ago. His reason for this conclusion 

 seems to be the likeness of the implements of the Seton-Karr find to 

 other flint instruments found at Kahun by Professor Flinders Petrie, 

 There is, however, one kind of axe found at Kahun having a groove 

 near the butt which I do not observe in some three of the sets above- 

 mentioned that have come under my notice, nor is it figured in Dr. 

 Forbes' Bulletin. But even though this type of implement was found in 

 both collections, we must consider the long time that some kinds of 

 implements survive unchanged, or very little changed in form, and 

 feel convinced that a partial likeness among implements found at 

 different places cannot be satisfactory evidence that they are of the 

 same age. 



Flakes. 



Flakes have been treated as of small account by collectors of 

 antiquities. The fact of their being found in any particular place 

 might be looked on as evidence of its occupation by man in the Stone 



