252 Original Articles. [April, 



the stone, these poor savages seem to have had saws made of drippings 

 of flint stuck in the slit of a wooden knife-like handle. Some stones 

 marked with grooves such as would be made by these primitive saws, 

 are to be seen in the British Museum. Flakes of flint were also used 

 for tipping arrows and lances, and these, in time, were manufactured 

 with great delicacy, so as to present barbs to add to their destructive 

 power (see Fig. 5). Stone hammers and mullers are found in con- 

 siderable quantities, and seem to have been employed long after the 

 metals were introduced into finer works. Some of the later of these 

 hammers and axes are pierced with holes for the reception of a 

 handle, a refinement not attempted in the earlier stages, when they 

 frequently had a groove for catching a withy or cord to clasp the 

 head. Querns, or small hand-mills, appear with the earliest remains, 

 and thus prepare us to find corn amongst the relics of this primitive 

 people at the bottom of the Swiss Lakes. These querns have not 

 disappeared very long from use in remote parts of Scotland.* We 

 should not be greatly astonished to find one in use even in the present 

 day in such localities as those in which spinning-wheels are still 

 employed, which latter invention dates back to the same period, as is 

 testified by the whorls frequently brought to light, and by the remains 

 both of nets and of rough material made by some process analogous 

 to weaving. Needles, pins, bodkins, awls, fish-hooks, and various 

 productions of a like character, were made from the bones of various 

 animals, which were first split, in order that the marrow might be 

 extracted, and were then manufactured into articles of various shapes, 

 some so remarkable that it is difficult to imagine their uses. We can 

 only wait to see whether the savages at the North Pole, or elsewhere, 

 possess similar implements. A curious cup was found in the Ork- 

 neys, fashioned from the vertebra of a whale. 



Stone formed the material of which some of the domestic utensils 

 also were constructed ; for instance, plates of slate have been found, 

 as well as chafing-dishes, ladles, two carved cups (like queches, used 

 now for whisky), bowls, and what can only be described as a tureen of 

 stone ; but pottery was not unknown, though of the roughest kind, and 

 it was but partially burnt, fashioned and ornamented only by the hand 

 with the thumb-nail, without the assistance of a wheel. Ornaments 

 of bone, fish shells, ground down so as to form rings, amber, eoal, and 

 beads of a variety of stones, have been found in some of the tombs, 

 showing traffic or importation from a considerable distance in some 

 instances. Wood was also used for heavy beetles, &c. 



Whilst speaking of the implements used by the people of the Stone 

 Age, it is only right to mention that several circumstances in historic 

 times point to an early use of such instruments. In many instances 

 we find stone axes and knives used in sacred ceremonials, where 

 naturally we may imagine that an antiquated state of civilization was 



* In the reign of Alexander III. of Scotland, a.d. 1284, the following law was 

 passed against querns : — " No man sail presume to grind quheit, rnaishlock, or rye 

 with hands mylne, except he be compelled be storm or be lack of mills quhilk 

 sould grind the samen." 



