42 



On the same evening, Mr. J. H. Staples read a paper on 

 «'The Flaked, Chipped, and Worked Flints to be found in the 

 Gravel in the Neighbourhood of Holy wood, Co. Down." 



In a gravel stretching along part of the shore of the Belfast 

 Lough, and very well developed, in the neighbourhood of Holy- 

 wood, the well-known Flint Flakes are very plentiful, and, in the 

 same bed with these, a few rudely-chipped Celts, Spear Heads, 

 and certain oval-shaped weapons have been found. Also, the Flint 

 Cores, from which the flakes have been struck, are tolerably nume- 

 rous. 



All these flakes and rude weapons exhibit the peculiar con- 

 choidal fracture of the Flint. The flakes are struck off at one 

 blow, and have one side quite smooth, showing the clear fracture ; 

 the other side bears the marks of previous flakes. They are gene- 

 rally mere scales of flint struck off entire at one blow, but have 

 sometimes been subsequently chipped. The cores are masses of 

 Flint showing the marks of numerous flakes. These have been all 

 struck nicely off in one direction, from one end of the core to the 

 other. The Celts and other weapons can be almost exactly matched 

 with others a little better and more highly worked, from Toome 

 Bridge and elsewhere. They are also of the same type as those 

 from the Somme Valley, in France, and different English gravels. 



The gravels in which these flakes and weapons are found lie 

 immediately over the glacier drift, or, where that is wanting, on 

 the beds of New Eed Sandstone. It is covered with from one to 

 two feet of soil, and* is generally at a height of three feet above 

 high-water mark. The sea is now breaking down the bed, and 

 strewing the contents on the beach ; so that since the gravel was 

 deposited and the weapons in it made, the sea must have receded, 

 and again encroached on the land, and, in the meanwhile, the 

 gravel became covered with soil. 



At a meeting of the Club, on Thursday evening, 1st April — ■ 

 Professor James Thompson, C.E., in the chair — a paper was read 

 by the Kev, Dr. MacIlwaine on " Sponges." 



