lS 9*-93-3 557 



gilbert, and crushed through the underwood of Glenoe, Glen- 

 wherry, and Glenarm, and that the Irish elk often inhaled the 

 fresh breezes from the summits of Trostan and Divis, the 

 Knockagh and Black Mountain, herded with the red deer and 

 long-faced ox in the alluvial plains of the Lagan valley, roamed 

 freely in the woods of Derryaghy, and by their magnificent 

 antlers cleared a pathway through the oak forests of Ballinderry, 

 and slaked their thirst by the waters of Lough Neagh.* 



PRE-HISTORIC STAGE. 



With the Megaceros fttbernicus, or Irish elk, we must leave 

 the Palaeolithic stage, and deal with that long, progressive, but 

 remote stage known as the Neolithic or Pre-historic stage, 

 during which the working of flint attained its highest develop- 

 ment in the North of Ireland, as indicated by the numerous, 

 varied, and in many cases, beautiful examples of worked flints 

 scattered over the country, and which were undoubtedly 

 manufactured in, or around, the County of Antrim. Indeed, 

 there is every reason to believe that the ancient flint factories of 

 Antrim supplied all Ireland, if not Great Britain itself, with 

 implements and weapons of flint. 



The ability to do so was due, mainly, to the fact that we have 

 in the northern counties of Antrim, Derry, and Down a most 

 excellent and unique development of the Cretaceous or Chalk 

 rocks, popularly recognised as " the white limestone," which 

 supply an abundance of flints, such as may be seen when the 

 white limestone is exposed on the face of the magnificent cliffs 

 that form the boundary of the northern and eastern coast of 

 Antrim, and are equally abundant on the slopes and precipitous 

 escarpments that look westward on the valley of the Roe, and 

 southward towards Armagh, Lough Neagh, and the valley of 

 the Lagan. Indeed, wherever the Chalk crops out from below 

 the great northern sheet of dark basaltic rocks, there may be 



* Several heads and horns of the red deer were found when excavating for foundation 

 of Gamble & Shillington's Mills, Upper Falls. A portion of the horn of the 

 Irish elk was found in the foundation of the new Albert Bridge over the 

 Lagan. 



