224 



SERMONS IN STONES. 



The Stone Ages in North Britain and Ireland, by the Rev. F. Smith. 



Blackie Ov: Sons, 377 pp., 16/- net. 



There is no doubt that this is one of the most remarkable books that 

 has appeared during the present century. At first we thought it must be 

 a reprint of a work originally published about 1750. But it is not. The 

 ' Dedication ' is a novelty anyway. It begins, ' During the forty years 

 many friends come and go,' and the author forthwith proceeds to ' dedicate ' 

 to a whole army of naturalists, etc., past and present. And then Dr. 

 A. H. Keane eulogises Mr. Smith, and refers to his extraordinary work. 

 Apparently largely to Dr. Keane's influence, the present book has made 

 its appearance. In this we are not quite sure whether Dr. Keane has 

 acted well for Mr. Smith. He concludes by designating Mr. Smith ' the 

 Boucher de Perthes of Scotland,' though we think ' Boucher de Purrth ' 

 would have been better. 



In his quest the author is, admittedly, very largely alone. The late 

 Sir John Evans, referred to as ' doubting Thomas/ and several other 

 authorities who have restricted their collections to ' orthodox forms,' 

 do not see e^'e to eye with Mr. Smith. But that is evidently their misfor- 

 tune. 



j\Ir. Smith is obviously an enthusiast, and is not damped by any amount 

 of cold water. His reception at the British Association, at University 

 Museums, and other trivial places of a like character, have not proved 

 encouraging ; yet he has gone on. He is one of those who sees weapons 

 in the running brooks, flayers in stones, and implements in everything. 

 He has spent forty years in picking up weapons and tools in places where 

 the bigoted specialist would not look. Mr. Smith searches the boulder 

 clay, the old river gravels, the beds of streams, and the sea shore. All 

 these localities have yielded scores and scores of ' weapons ' to him. He 

 has found tliree hundred palseoliths in Scotland, also mullers, flayers, 

 knives, choppers, clubs, etc. He is very strong on ' handles.' A; pebble 

 or a boulder, narrower at one end than the other, is provided with a 

 ' handle.' Usually those found in streams or on the beach are ' mellow ' 

 with age. What an ordinary mortal would look upon as cleavage planes 

 or ordinary natural fractures, to Mj. Smith are ' boldly struck flakes.' A 

 stone shaped like a scapula, is proved to be a palaeolithic implement by 

 the author providing illustrations of shoulder-blades in the Dublin 

 Museum. Jaw-bones, etc., are used in the same way. And the 

 implements Mr. Smith finds are not restricted to flint ; they can be 

 made from basalt, granite, sandstone,' limestone— in fact, from any rock 

 that is subject to wear and tear in a stream or on the beach. ' Fig. 45 is a 

 boldly struck-out specimen, which, so far as one can judge (for it is highly 

 [sic] rolled), was fashioned from a yet more highly rolled stone — one 

 so rounded that we should have called it a pebble. Fig. 40 is of the 

 same type of work, but it was wholly sculptured out of a mass of basalt. 

 This last is scarcely at all water-worn, but is mellowed and minutely honey- 

 combed in the usual way by long submergence at the bottom of the sea,, 

 and has lost its point. This is an Ayrshire-coast specimen.' 



Quite a large proportion of his specimens have lost their points, or, 

 sides, or both, and these are shewn in the very excellent drawings by 

 ' restorations.' From these it is pretty clear that had Mr. Smith's palaeo- 

 liths been perfect when found, they would have been tolerably good 

 neoliths. Size is no object. One beach-specimen was so weighty that a 

 cab had to be requisitioned. Then the question arose as to what use 

 such an implement could be ? Only Mr. Smith could have solved it. 

 The weapon was a guillotine trap ! It was hung by a cord on a tree. 

 The mammoth passed underneath, snapped the cord, down came the 

 weapon, and the elephant died ! Here and there a fairly passable imple- 

 ment is figured — one somewhat approaching the ' orthodox ' type, but, 



Naturalist 



