100 H. C. Lcndor on 



below the other, so near the bottom as to i-ender it incapable of 

 holding water. Of the object of these perforations I can offer 

 no solution. 



I have to thank my friends Mr. Kiiowles, of Ballymena, and 

 Mr. R. M. Young for enabling me to display so representative a 

 collection of sandhill pottery. 



Of Flint implements much may be said and many deductions 

 drawn. In each cave excavated were found a few specimens 

 which are on exhibition. They are all, as may be seen, of one 

 type, the very crude class of scraper oi' knife. Now compare the 

 Souterrain flints with the Sand dune settlement flints. We find 

 among the latter many examples of this type, but as in the sand- 

 hill potterj^, we also find evidence of a gradually progressing and 

 improving technical skill in the manufacture of the flint 

 implements culminating in the beautiful arrow and spear heads 

 found in many of the sandhills, but chiefly in those in South 

 Down, principally at Dundrum and Ballykinlar. From these 

 flints we can, as from the pottery, trace indications of approximate 

 dates. The crude knives of the Souterrains and Ballykennedy 

 and Ballyrickardmore Foundries we know to be approximately 

 of the 5th to the 8th centuries. From this we can place the 

 exactly similar examples of the sandhill settlements, confirming 

 the deductions made from our comparison of the early pottery 

 remains. 



Concerning the finely worked examples of arrow and spear 

 heads, we must refer to O'Curry, Oiraldus Cambrensis, and 

 other authorities, to whose works 1 refer you for their conclusions. 

 From O'Curry we learn that the use of the bow and arrow is 

 never referred to in any of the ancient Irish tracts, although 

 many of these describe fully the weapons and armour of the 

 ancient Irish. From Giraldus Cambrensis we have the state- 

 ment that up to his time, about the year 1200, the Irish knew 

 nothing of the use of the bow and arrow. We may thus possibly 

 attribute the fine flint examples of the sandhills to dates after the 

 Norman invasion. From the State papers and other sources we 



