47 



drawn from insufficient facts ; as, for example, when it is said 

 that the absence of corn, or the remains of domestic animals in 

 Danish kitchen heaps, prove that they were unknown to the 

 depositors of the heaps. If the absence of the remains of 

 certain animals or plants from those deposits, prove that they 

 were unknown, or did not exist at the period of the formation, 

 then both the Danish kitchen heaps and the Swiss Lake 

 dwellings must be pre-human, as there are no human remains 

 found in them. He then exhibited a large quantity of the 

 flint flakes gathered around Belfast, from Toome Bridge, 

 Lurgan, Larne, Holywood, and Carrickfergus, and wherever 

 flint gravels occur ; and suggested the probability that they 

 were natural flakes, and not manufactured — first, because they 

 are always found in flint gravel ; secondly, because they are 

 found of all forms and sizes, and graduate from a mere lump 

 up to a finished flake ; thirdly, because the best formed are mere 

 flakes, while the badly shaped are chipped all over ; fourthly, 

 because, to manufacture the shapes found, intentionally, would 

 require such skill as would lead to the formation of a far more 

 perfect implement. The constancy of character was very re- 

 markable. All the specimens had one flat side, the other being 

 formed of two or more faces, with a central ridge. At the blunt 

 end on the flat side there occurs a bulb formed by the con- 

 choidal fracture of the flake, whatever may be the size or shape 

 of a specimen, it had those well marked characters. All the 

 flakes from the Bann, at Toome Bridge, were the natural colour 

 of the flint, and were rather sharp and well shaped. The 

 specimens from the gravels at Larne and Kilroot (near Carrick- 

 fergus) were irregular in form, and a white surface like por- 

 celain. In each case the flakes occur in iarge numbers. At 

 Toome Bridge they are found in the river, the bed of which is 

 a submerged peat bog, and celts and other wrought forms are 

 found with them. At Larne and Kilroot they occur in the 

 gravel of a raised beach near to, but several yards higher than, 

 the shore. A great variety of the specimens were exhibited to 

 illustrate the paper, and included two splendid stone hatchets 

 and a beautiful cinerary urn from the collection of Samuel 

 Barbour, Esq., found last summer at Notting Hill, Belfast ; 



