FOSSIL FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 
29 
the origin and the method of flaking by the presence of a sharp ridge, or a flat 
band passiag do^^^l the front side only, tlie backbeing^ alike in both cases, flat or 
nearly so. In this then we have a palpable and unmistakable brand, appKcable 
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 liand at breaking out these flakes. 
At first you will fail miserably. Persevere and you "^ill acquire the hiack with 
precision and certainty. And this knack being peculiar, the character of the 
flakings are peculiar also, aud not such as would result from natural pulverizuig 
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 ^vith courtesy 
and consideration to the feelings and sentiments of every one of my readers. 
I wish to oflPend no prejudices or belief —to interfere with no doctrines, theory, 
or faith — but one important reflection wiU 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 
thi'ough whose unearthly eyes something not unlike human intelligence seems 
to beam. We look at its thick lips and flattened nose, and our thoughts turn 
involuntarily to the bandied legs, thick Hps, low forehead, and black ta^iiy skin 
of the wool-headed negro, and for one moment we may think " Good heavens, 
can there be a nearer Unk of men and brutes ?" In days gone by — days gone 
by ages ago — in those days when the mammoth aud Irish elk, the cave-bear 
aud 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 thouglit wiU 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 thi*ee ideas in the manufac- 
ture of these flint -implements. From Denmark to our own Island — over re"-ions 
now the seats of many nations — they chipped their flmts and formed Iheir 
weapons on the same primitive plans, by the same primitive means. There is 
no effort whatever at ornamentation : nor even of polishing or smoothino*. 
The makers of them do not seem to have attamed to the idea of rubbiuf do\vii 
to a point or an edge, and never to have gone beyoud the first rough efforts of 
chipping out. Low as we 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 witii 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 
