34 -^ Recent Discovery of Worked Flints. 



exceedingly compact peat, and this in turn had been covered 

 by about 20 feet of sand, now partially removed by sea action. 

 The flints were firmly packed together ; in fact, they were 

 interlocked with one another, so that when working into the 

 face it was sometimes difficult to get one out until the adjoining 

 ones had been loosened and dislodged. The whole find was 

 evidently the heap which the old flintworker had formed at his 

 feet while he sat at his work on the hard surface of the ground 

 before some of the changes of level took place, which enabled a 

 later growth of peat to come and cover up the surface, includmg 

 the heap of flints. The flints were quite unweathered and 

 unrolled, and had their edges as sharp as if they had been just 

 made. Their colour was quite unchanged, being the same dull 

 black or dark grey that freshly-broken flint presented. Many 

 of the flakes were of exceptionally large size, with great heavy 

 butts, while others were thin and delicately formed, reminding 

 one of the modern gun-flint makers' flakes. The cores also 

 resembled those from which modern flakes were struck. On 

 the whole, the flakes and cores were much like those found in 

 the Larne gravels, with the marked difference that instead of 

 being rolled and weathered they were perfectly sharp and fresh. 

 The flakes measured from one inch to five inches long, most of 

 them, however, being about three inches. He noticed that 

 some of those flints were marked with spots or splashes of a 

 clear vitreous glaze, exceedingly thin and transparent, as if 

 liquid glass had been dropped or splashed upon them. This 

 glaze reflected the light, but seemed to be without any appreci- 

 able thickness. He presumed that silica in solution must have 

 come in contact with some of the surfaces of the embedded 

 flints, but further than this he could suggest no explanation of 

 the matter. 



Dr. Lindsay subsequently read an essay on '•' Dante," which 

 was warmly praised by the President and other members. 



Mr. R. M. Young, j.p., m.k.i.a. (Hon Secretary), read the 

 following letter which he had received from the Marquis of 



