212 ProceeJlnys oj the Ro/ial Irish Acadcnuj. 



Academy's Museiuu was found in the Eiver Blackwater, Co. Armagh, and is 

 formed, I believe, of the same rocks as those I am going to describe from the 

 Bann. Su' William "Wilde calls the material clay-slate.' In the Bann 

 implements various laminae of rock dififering in shade are often Adsible, and that 

 some layers are more easily affected by the weather than others, can be seen 

 in the implements that have been long exposed. I have some stone liatchets 

 greatly disfigured liy such weathering. 



Sir John Evans in his paper on " Arehaeologia," - on " Discoveries of Stone 

 Implements in Lough Neagh," says : " The stone hatchets or celts, as they are 

 commonly called, have been made principally of the following materials : — 

 clay-slate, green-stone, lapis Lydius, serpentine, basalt, hornblende, schist, 

 taleose-slate, and various other metamorphic rocks. A few occur in flint." 

 Lapus Lydius, according to Sii' William Wilde, is the chert or black substance 

 derived from the Carboniferous limestone, corresponding to flint, and at 

 Bundoran, in Co. Donegal, I got many implements made of this substance. It 

 had a shiny fracture, and was quite black. I have searched among my finds 

 from the Bann on various occasions, but have not found any articles made of 

 material similar to that of the Bundoran implements. Lapis Lydius may, 

 however, show different degi'ces of fineness, though I have seen it of the 

 same texture and fineness in Galway as in Donegal. There is no reason why 

 lapis Lydius should not be found, and if found made into implements, but it 

 evidently has not been found in any quantit)'. 



Figs. 88, 90, 91 show three implements of black rock, which are pointed and 

 unpolished. They could all be matched by similar implements in flint, and 

 therefore, I should say, form a connecting link between the flint and black 

 stone implements. No. 91 has a thick butt at the top of the figure, and is 

 pointed at opposite end. No. 88, like some coarse flint implements, has a 

 rude point at each end. Both are made of very hard rock, which cannot be 

 scratched with a knife ; and though they do not show the smooth fracture 

 and lustre of the Carboniferous chert I am acquainted with from Bundoran, 

 yet this might be the kind of rock which Sir John Evans describes as lapis 

 Lydius. It is certainly different from the clay-slate rock, of which so many 

 implements are made. The fine-pointed implement shown in No. 90 is 

 made of fine black rock, but is very light as compared with the size of the 

 implement. We find very fine large flakes pointed like those of flint, and 

 stone axes having the same form and character as the axes of clay-slate, made 

 of this light material. The rock would seem to have been formed of fine 

 mud ; and 1 have an axe made of it, which the owner has used as a hone 



> Cat. Mus. R.I.A., p. 4."!- 2 Vol. xH, pait ii, p. 400. 



