Dec. 2S, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



657 



or yellowish tint, while the tools which were made from 

 the chalk were black or grey. Here, for example, was a 

 most beautiful specimen of flint, where they could see a 

 pebble had been taken and' by a few dexterous blows 

 had been made into a weapon. This came from Heme 

 Bay, and they would see by a drawing on the wall, that 

 the instrument probably was somewhat more pointed 

 originally — that the point had been broken off, and that 

 the instrument was then thrown away. They sometimes 

 found clear indications that after an instrument of that 

 kind had been blunted a fresh point had been given 

 to it by chipping, but in time that wore out, and then the 

 instrument was thrown away and a new one made. 

 Such instruments as these were reduced to the form 

 which they now bore by a few dexterous and smart 

 Mows, which, administered in a proper direction, would 

 take off flake after flake, reducing the flint to the particular 

 form exhibited. Much depended upon the skill with 

 which the work of taking off the flakes was done, and 

 doubtless, as at the present day, there were skilful work- 

 men and unskilful workmen ; some of the instruments 

 made being of a very rude character, while others were 

 very beautifully fashioned. In other cases a good black 

 flint was selected — a flint taken from the chalk. They 

 might sometimes see a part of the white coating which 

 characterised flint in chalk still adhering to a part of the 

 flint, as in the specimen from Heme Bay, and in the in- 

 strument found in London, which was preserved in the 

 British Museum. At other times they found that masses 

 of flint which had received a somewhat definite form by 

 a few sharp blows taking off flakes, had been worked up 

 in the most beautiful manner by further treatment. Here, 

 for example, was a flint-knife, or scraper, which had 

 been first roughly shaped by a number of blows. That 

 specimen was from Denmark. It had been made into its 

 present form, and teeth had been produced along the edge 

 of the mass. The way in which those teeth had been 

 produced was not by percussion, as the general out- 

 line of the flint had been produced, but, judging from 

 the way in which flints arrows and similar objects 

 were made by the Exquimaux and Indians of 

 the present day, a somewhat different mode was 

 adopted. If the flint was fashioned by hard blows and 

 then ^a hard substance was pressed against it, little 

 flakes might be made to fly off, and a number of delicate 

 flakes might be taken off by pressure, and thus a perfect 

 form be produced, especially the beautiful serrated 

 edges which characterised some of the weapons. A 

 diagram of one of the flint flakers used by the 

 Esquimaux was shown, and the handle of this flaker 

 consisted of a piece of very dark-coloured ivory, which 

 was largely found in the Northern Hemisphere ; while 

 the tool itself consisted of a piecei of the horn of 

 a reindeer, which was used on account of its extreme 

 hardness. This was fastened very securely by a 

 sinew to the piece of ivory which served as a handle, 

 and then the sinew contracted and held the piece of 

 reindeer-horn firmly. With that weapon the Esqui- 

 maux could be seen to take a flake off a flint and work 

 off little flakes from the edges until they produced the 

 beautiful serrations which characterised some of the 

 well fashioned articles in flint like the arrow-heads. 

 How beautiful those objects could be made by this 

 method of flaking could be seen from diagrams and 

 specimens show. Lastly, when the very best flints were 

 required, mines were opened in the chalk strata. 

 Very rude mines they were, of course; they were 



really great conical holes which were made into the 

 chalk leading down into a particularly good bed of flint, 

 and carefully selected beds of flints were capable of 

 being worked with very great care, first by chipping, 

 and then by finking, until most exquisitely beautiful 

 articles, such as those exhibited, were produced. There 

 was a wonderful variety of fashions in the different 

 types of these instruments used in different places. 

 On a diagram was shown a curved knife ; also various 

 forms of spear and javelin-heads ; also a few of the 

 variety of types of arrow-heads, which were made by 

 those methods. With regard to the determination 

 of the methods employed, they depended upon 

 watching savages like the Esquimaux and the In- 

 dians at work; and travellers who had spent much 

 time amongst these people had given them an account 

 and showed clearly how any such work was being done 

 now ; and doubtless the work done in the past was 

 effected by very similar men. Some persons by studying 

 these various objects had learnt to make flint imple- 

 ments. His friend, Dr. John Evans, the well-known 

 antiquary, who had :devoted a great deal of time to the 

 subject, and had, perhaps, the finest collection in|the world, 

 became a dexterous worker in makingflint-instruments; and 

 he remembered how the late Sir Charles |Lyell was n uch 

 interested in the making of the instruments and in all 

 questions bearing on the antiquity of man. Dr. Evans sat 

 beside a workman who was making one of these objects, 

 and carried away every fragment of the flint in his pocket 

 for the purpose of study. Others had worked pieces of 

 flint for less worthy objects, like the celebrated Flint Jack 

 and other forgers in France, who had worked in the same 

 way as the old workmen ; instead of using old stone 

 hammers, they used hammers of steel, however, and 

 they managed to make flint instruments in this 

 way. It had sometimes been suggested that perhaps 

 all the instrumenls were forgeries, but that was as 

 unlikely as that all coins should be bad ones. If there 

 had been no true coins, he did not suppose that makers 

 of base coin would have arisen ; but as a matter of fact 

 there was generally no difficulty in distinguishing the 

 spurious from the real article. The real articles had a 

 peculiar lustre and feel which those who had studied the 

 implements got to know perfectly, and they often had 

 peculiarities which no forger, however cunning, could 

 impart to them ; and moreover, these flint implements had 

 been found again and again by persons whose testimony 

 was unimpeachable. There was not the slightest doubt 

 there were many of these genuine flint implements. What 

 he had with him were genuine, though there were forged 

 ones, just as there were base half-crowns and sovereigns. 

 Let him now say a word about using those flint in- 

 struments. To a certain extent the mode in which 

 those implements were employed in ancient times was 

 conjectural, but it was not wholly so, for they found in 

 modern savages so many implements of like forms that 

 they could not doubt that they were similarly employed 

 in the past. Among the oldest flint implements which 

 had the greatest interest for them, they had several 

 well-marked types. There was first the long pointed 

 type, of which there were drawings of three specimens 

 on the wall. They were of large size, and in regard to 

 the way in which they were used there might be some 

 doubt. It had been snggested that in many cases they 

 were employed as ice chisels. He would point out 

 to them that the climate of this country was formerly 

 much colder than it was at present, when these people 



