IO ANCESTRAL MAN. 



are found in Italy, France, Germany, and England ; but the 

 substance itself is not known to occur in Europe. 



Flint does not exist naturally in the district of Lake Constance, 

 yet it is met with in such quantities on the shore of the Ueber- 

 linger See, that the inhabitants from time immemorial have drawn 

 their supplies of flint from this store without its having become 

 exhausted. It was the great abundance of this material, which 

 had evidently been brought there by man, that first led M. Ullers- 

 berger to the discovery of the ancient Lake Dwellings. 



In like manner, no flint occurs native in the neighbourhood of 

 Blackstone Edge ; yet the surrounding hills abound with imple- 

 ments and fragments of this substance, so much so as to have 

 influenced even the nomenclature of the locality. 



Before leaving this division of our subject it may be well to lay 

 down four propositions as cardinal guides in the investigation of 

 the relics of a Stone Age. 



i. — The fact that a flint implement is unpolished does not of 

 itself prove the implement to be palaeolithic rather than neolithic. 

 Because, though a high degree of delicate and skilful workmanship 

 shows that a stone weapon belongs to a comparatively recent 

 period, the converse does not hold good. In the latter days of 

 the stone age, as well as in the beginning, there were bad and 

 careless workmen ; whilst it is evident that during the pressure of 

 war, or under the exigencies of the chase, rapid production must 

 often have been of greater importance than elegance of style. 

 Moreover, as the glory of the stone age declined, when the rem- 

 nants of a despised and inferior race were hunted on the hills, or 

 were shut out, on cold moors, to perish from want and exposure 

 through slow centuries, the perfection of art would be lost, the 

 trade in silicious material would cease, and the last manufacture 

 of flint implements might well become the worst and rudest of all. 



2.— It is the fact that the stone age continued all through the 

 metallic ages, and has not, even yet, altogether come to an end. 

 If, on the one hand, we discover wrought flints buried under 

 accumulated strata, where they lie in undisturbed juxtaposition 

 with the remains of animals that have long since become extinct ; 

 on the other hand, in all parts of Europe we find implements of 

 stone associated with B-oman coins. Stone axes are common in 

 Scandinavian tombs of the fifth century ; flint flakes are found in 

 Saxon interments as late, probably, as the tenth century ; and 

 flint implements are being used, by some peoples, even in our 

 own times. 



3.— So that wherever wrought flints or stone weapons are 

 discovered, their age must be determined solely by their horizon, — 

 that is, by a consideration of their site and associations. 



