1892-93.] 5 6 3 



applied. They vary in dimensions from 1 in. or 2 in. long to 

 8 in. or 10 in. — sometimes even more. They exhibit several 

 degrees of finish ; sometimes they are very rudely chipped, such 

 as those found in the raised beaches and sand-dunes, at river 

 fords, such as Toome Bridge and Coleraine, and even on the 

 sites of settlements, such as Mount Sandal on the Bann. Many 

 are so roughly chipped they appear as if roughed out for more 

 skilful finish subsequently. Others pass from such rude forms 

 up to the well-formed and highly-polished weapons or tools more 

 sparingly distributed over our northern area. In each case we 

 have fairly typical examples for comparison with similar worked 

 flints in other countries ; yet the varieties from the types are 

 almost endless, as indeed is the case with any form of implement 

 or tool in modern use. 



Suppose we take a collection of knives, scissors, walking sticks, 

 or umbrellas, what a puzzle it would be to Lord Macaulay's New 

 Zealander to determine how to arrange and classify them in 

 illustration of a communication, we will suppose, he is to prepare 

 for reading before a scientific body some few thousand years 

 hence. The difficulty is no less in dealing with our Antrim 

 worked flints, although to the expert it is not quite insur- 

 mountable. 



The general character of the finely-worked flint arrowheads of 

 this stage indicate a considerable advance in the social condition 

 of primitive man, who, as a hunter and a warrior, used in the 

 chase or in war many of the worked flints we now find on the 

 surface of the ground. Their abundance and distribution may to 

 some extent be accounted for by supposing that the ancient 

 Irishmen, like the modern Bushmen, never used a second time 

 an arrow that once missed its mark. 



With flint implements of this kind, no doubt, the dwellers in 

 the hill-forts of Lurig and Drummaul hunted the long-faced ox 

 in the valley of Glenariff, and the holders of the fort on Cave 

 Hill, or the residents in the settlements of Ormeau followed the 

 red deer to the woods of Derryaghy, as the American Indian 

 hunted the buffalo on the western prairies, or the wolf in the 

 forests of Indiana, 



