386 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



of seventy. Their shapes vary considerably, and no doubt they were made for 

 various special purposes. One of the hammers in my collection has been so 

 Avell preserved deep in the earth (overlying the chalk in the township of Brid- 

 lington) that it shows the mode in which it was made. It is five and three- 

 quarter inches long, two and a-quarter wide, and about five inches in circum- 

 ference ; an oblong oval, inclined to be flattened on the sides. Along and 

 across the whole of the exterior it shows the indentations and lines of shaping 

 by the tool with which it was made. It has no hole to hold a shaft. The form 

 oi* this hammer is, as before stated, oblong, and tapering towards one end of it, 

 ,as are some of the tools or weapons called " celts." 



The outlines of the hammer in question are as above. The mode in which 

 the handle was fastened to this instrument was no doubt by having a pliable 

 stick wound round the smaller end, and the two ends brought into juxta- 

 position and tied fast together, as a smith fastens a rod round the chisel with 

 which he cuts hot iron. It will be seen at a glance that when the instrument 

 Avas thus fastened, and the thick end was struck against any object, that the 

 wedge-like form of the hammer would no doubt cause it to be held tight, and 

 the oftener it was used the tighter it would be held, by the mode used in 

 fastening it. This hammer is of sandstone, of a rather fine grain. 



Lign. 2.— Sandstone hammer with drilled hole. 



Another hammer in my collection, made of sandstone, having a hole in it for 

 a handle, and is made in shape somewhat like the sketch (Pig. 2). The hole is 

 dec])ly splayed, and was no doubt made by rotatory friction, as rubbing with 

 nnoilicr liarder stone and the nse of sand and water; yet as the stone hammer 

 descended to much more modern times than weapons of the same material, 

 metal may have been employed in making the aperture. 



Several examples of liammers having the holes for the handle made by a 

 metal drill have come before my notice; and others are mentioned at page' 78 

 ot the Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academv, which museum 

 contams the greatest quantity of implements in stone and flint of any public 



