140 Shcppard : Prehistoric Rejiinms from Lincolnshire. 



exceedingly hard egg-shaped qiiartzite pebbles, which have 

 been used for rubbing or burnishing. It is generally thought 

 that they were used for preparing the surfaces of the polished 

 stone axes. Respecting these ' rubbers ' Sir John Evans 

 states that ' in grinding and polishing the concave faces of 

 different forms of perforated stone axes, it is probable that stone 

 rubbers were used in conjunction with sand.' Even the smaller 

 flat and rounded faces may have been wrought by similar 

 means. That rubbers of some kind must have been used is, 

 I think, evident from the character of the surfaces, especially 

 of those which are hollowed ; and the most readily available 

 material for the formation of such rubbers, was doubtless stone. 



10 ir 



There is therefore an a priori probability of such stone grinding 

 tools having been in use ; and if we find specimens which pre- 

 sent conditions which such tools would exhibit, we are almost 

 justified in assuming them to have served such purposes. 

 Now in the collection of Messrs. Mortimer, of Driffield, York- 

 shire, are several pieces of flint, and portions of pebbles of 

 schist, flint, and quartz found in that neighbourhood, which are 

 ground at one end into a more or less rounded form, and exhibit 

 striae running along, and not across the rounded surface. They 

 have, in fact, all the appearance of having been used with 

 coarse sand for grinding a concavity in another stone.' 



The longer of the two Ferriby specimens is of hard, white 

 quartzite, and one end has been rubbed away and still bears 

 the scratches that have apparently been made upon it by the 

 sand. This is ij inches in length. The other specimen is of 

 liver-coloured quartzite, and apparently represents less than 



Naturalist, 



