144 On the Palaeolithic Flint Implements f rom Knoivle. 



specimen, too, a small part of the old patina has been left, which 

 has the glassy coating on it and all the inequalities plainly marked. 

 One other explanation has been suggested, and this has not the 

 strong objection there is to those already given, i.e., that the polish 

 may be due to a liquid opaline silica (hyaline) having been deposited 

 on the chalcedonoid surface of the flint. There is, of course, the 

 great difficulty with this suggestion that there is nothing to account 

 for the presence of the opaline silica. It is necessary to realise 

 the presence of some geyserous spring rising in this small locality 

 and overspreading the flints with which it came in contact. The 

 polish does occur on both worked and unworked flints, and is 

 certainly confined to a limited area, probably only two or three 

 yards square, and, in spite of its difficulties, this explanation is the 

 one that I have felt bound to accept, the absence of all traces of 

 friction rendering the acceptance of either of the others impossible. 



As regards the polish seen on the Knowle flints, both worked 

 and unworked, and referred to in the above papers by the Messrs. 

 Cunnington and Mr. S. B. Dixon, it may be worth noticing the 

 fact that I have carefully looked through, during the last two 

 years, several museums — including the British Museum and the 

 Blackmore Museum, at Salisbury — in the vain endeavour to find 

 anything at all resembling the glassy polish of these Wiltshire 

 flints. The British Museum has some specimens from Egypt with 

 a certain polish, but this polish is not in any degree comparable 

 with that found at Knowle. The only examples that I have ever 

 been able to find, or hear of, possessing a polish which can be 

 compared with that on the flints in question is to be found on two 

 fine specimens of " spades," or " hoes," from South America in the 

 magnificent collection of flint implements from all parts of the 

 world deposited at the Guildhall Museum at Winchester. They 



