414 DAVIS: ANCIENT FLINT-USERS OF YORKSHIRE. 
the East Riding source, large numbers of flints have been found, some 
of exquisite workmanship. In 1882, Messrs. Law & HorsfalP'^ read a 
paper " On the discovery of flint implements on the hills between 
Todmorden and Marsden." The flints have been found in numerous 
localities mostly on or near the summits of the highest and most 
prominent hills on the Penine range. They are usually found 
beneath the peat and peaty subsoil, in a layer of sand with angular 
fragments of sandstone. The peat varies from a few inches to a very 
considerable thickness, and in several instances flint weapons have 
been found under 7 to 10 feet of peat. The flints are largely 
composed of chippings and flakes, together with occasional cores 
from which the flakes appear to have been struck ofl". Beautifully 
chipped arrow-heads and other objects are interspersed in smaller 
numbers. Scrapers, knives, and some exquisitely-fashioned small 
implements which may have been used as prickers to bore holes 
through hides or skins. On March Hill, a conical eminence over- 
looking the vale of Marsden, more than 2,000 flint objects were 
discovered, and hundreds of others have been found on the neighbour- 
ing heights. 
The occurrence of flint implements in the western parts of the 
county is of wide extent ; numerous flakes, arrow-heads, and other 
objects have been discovered on the hills in the neighbourhood of 
Sheflield in the south ; and the moorlands north of Halifax, extending 
towards Haworth, have also been productive. In fact, on almost 
every hill where the peat has been removed, either by fire, denudation, 
or b)^ human agency for fuel, and the stratum of sandy clay exposed 
at its base, diligent search has been rewarded by the discovery of 
flints in greater or less profusion on some part of its surface. At the 
base, or in the lower beds of peat, there are numerous roots and 
stumps of trees, sometimes of large size ; they all terminate a few 
feet from the ground, and often several feet below the present surface 
of the peat. On many of the stumps there is evidence of fire, and 
the forest may, centuries ago, have been burnt down to dislodge a 
foe, perhaps the user of the flints now occurring on the surface, which 
was once that of the soil in which the trees grew and flourished. The 
Proceedings of the Yorksh. Geol. and Polyt. Society, vol. viii., p. 70. 
