FOSSIL FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



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the origin and the method of flaking by the presence of a sharp ridge, or a flat 

 band passing down the front side only, the back being alike in both cases, flat or 

 nearly so. In this then we have a palpable and unmistakable brand, applicable 

 alike'to the modern or fossil flint instruments, and by which we can satisfy 

 ourselves by the smallest fragment (see fig. 22, page 25) of a broken specimen, 

 because it must be borne in mind that such is not to be produced by any natural 

 breakage, but can only be effected by the design which brings the block at 

 first into the required shape, and then causes the fracturing blows to be given in 

 a peculiar and designed manner. Try your hand at breaking out these flakes. 

 At first you will fail miserably, Persevere and you will acquire the knack with 

 precision and certainty. And this knack being peculiar, the character of the 

 flakings are peculiar also, and not such as would result from natural pulverizing 

 or breakage by collision with each other. 



And now I approach another topic in this interesting investigation, on which 

 I wish to speak with the utmost caution and guardedness, and with courtesy 

 and consideration to the feelings and sentiments of every one of my readers. 

 I wish to offend no prejudices or belief —to interfere with no doctrines, theory, 

 or faith — but one important reflection will arise at this stage in my mind, and 

 therefore, probably, also in the minds of others. What were these first men 

 like ? Did they stand erect and noble ? Were they high intellectual beings, 

 the fit progenitors of a lofty-minded and world-conquering race ? The voice of 

 Science is dumb. 



Darwin has lately given powerful arguments in favour of the development 

 doctrines, and the natural production of higher and higher forms of animal and 

 vegetable life, by the amelioration and improvement of species. We look from 

 the apes and monkeys to the ourangs and chimpanzees, and we pause before the 

 wonderful semi-human expressive face of the gorilla — a stalwart active brute- 

 through whose unearthly eyes something not unlike human intelligence seems 

 to beam. We look at its thickjips and flattened nose, and our thoughts turn 

 involuntarily to the bandied legs, thick lips, low forehead, and black tawny skin 

 of the wool-headed negro, and for one moment we may think " Good heavens, 

 can there be a nearer link of men and brutes ?" In days gone by — days gone 

 by ages ago — in those days when the mammoth and Irish elk, the cave-bear 

 and hippopotamus dwelt in our land, was there then a nearer closer link of 

 man and beast ? I know not — I speak not — but such a thought will arise 

 when we look at the great four-handed beasts of our own day on the one hand, 

 and on the other regard the primitive rudeness of workmanship of these fossil 

 instruments. The whole race, tribe, commonality, or nation — be it what it may 

 — of primitive men seems possessed of but two or three ideas in the manufac- 

 ture of these flint -implements. From Denmark to our own Island — over regions 

 now the seats of many nations — they chipped their flints and formed their 

 weapons on the same primitive plans, by the same primitive means. There is 

 no effort whatever at ornamentation : nor even of polishing or smoothing. 

 The makers of them do not seem to have attained to the idea of rubbing down 

 to a point or an edge, and never to have gone beyond the first rough efforts of 

 chipping out. Low as Ave are accustomed to regard the Celtic race in the scale 

 of civilization, these first men must have been much lower and yet one would 

 not be willing to believe them unendowed with unperishing souls like ourselves. 



Curious low fronted skulls have been found in caves, in fields near ossiferous 

 or bone-bearing fissures — have been found under circumstances of suspicious 

 proximity to bone-deposits ; but no real evidence is yet obtained. Men's minds 

 have not yet been directed to this point, or men have shirked this topic in their 

 investigations. I do not attempt to draw a conclusion in these remarks : I 

 direct attention merely to a point of necessary investigation, as one on which 

 evidence must sooner or later be accumulated ; and the more workers there are 



