5 66 [Proc. B.N.F.C., 



British barrows explored by him.* Similar implements have 

 been found in the French and Belgium ossiferous caves, where 

 they occur in connection with extinct Mammalia. t 



After the discovery of iron, the pyrites was superseded by 

 strikers of iron or steel, yet the scraper-like shape of the worked 

 flint was retained, and thus flint and steel became an established 

 fire-producing apparatus. Even this method of producing fire 

 is of very considerable antiquity. In Pliny's " Natural History" 

 there is a reference to the importance of worked flint as part of 

 the equipment of a camp, and the translator thus expresses the 

 reason, — " for if they strike them either with an iron spike or 

 another stone they will cast forth sparks of fire, which lighting 

 upon matches dipt in brimstone, dried puffs, or leaves, will cause 

 them to catch fire sooner than a man can say the word." 



The use of the flint and steel was probably known to the 

 Romans, as it was to the early Britons, and since then it has 

 survived till our day. In many countries the fire was kindled 

 by a spark struck from the flint on dried fungus or moss ; in 

 this country, prepared cotton was used in a tinder-box ; this was 

 an essential apparatus in the production of fire for domestic 

 purposes. Touch-paper, or what is called in the South of 

 Ireland " spunk," was used with the flint and steel in lighting 

 the workman's pipe ; this was the chief method of producing a 

 light previous to the introduction of matches, and the form of 

 match now used originated with the sulphur match necessary 

 to produce a flame from the spark kindled in the tinder-box by 

 the flint and steel, such as is referred to by Pliny, and was in 

 use in the younger days of the present generation. 



Flint strike-a-lights for domestic purposes became an im- 

 portant article of commerce, and flint factories were established 

 almost wherever the flint-bearing Chalk rocks occur, as they do 

 so extensively in the North of Ireland. England, France, and 

 Belgium carried on the trade, and the form of the strike-a- 

 lights varied somewhat with the country that produced them. 



* " British Barrows," by Grecnwell and Rolleston. 

 t " Reliquiae Aquitanicae." 



