EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. 



21 



coating to denote age is sometimes obtained by boiling the im- 

 plement for weeks in a kettle, and then polishing on a polishing 

 wheel, of course removing the distinctive character of the ridges. 

 The greater proportion of these arrow-heads are made of French 

 flint, yellow and semitransparent. 



Spurious Flint Axes : chipped ones of flint ; unchipped, of plaster. 



Scrapers are very rarely made. Genuine ones are so common 

 in the district as to render imitations unprofitable. I have a 

 spurious flint dagger in my possession, which would deceive none 

 but the veriest novice. Chipped axes are, next to arrow-heads, 

 the implements most frequently manufactured. As they command 

 good prices and are somewhat difficult of detection, their disposal 

 to enthusiastic and unsuspicious collectors is a remunerative 

 calling. A spurious Neolithic axe of grey opaque flint, ground 

 and polished, was offered to a friend of the writer by a Brandon 

 workman. It was stated to have been found in a gravel pit at a 

 depth of twenty feet ! It is worthy of remembrance that gum is 



