satisfactorily by a process of reasoning winch is easy to carry 
out, and perfectly legitimate in its deductions. For instance, 
a single fractured flint, with perhaps little or no definite form, 
may present to the eye of those unaccustomed to examine 
such relics, no traces of an ethnological or historic character. 
But when we find several fragments of a similar appearance, 
and of a concavo-convex shape, flakes evidently struck off 
from the sides or angles of a mass of flint, the fact instantly 
and very naturally suggests itself that they are not the 
results of accidental fracture or the effects of frost, but 
rather that of a succession of blows, as a slight convex 
or conchoidal prominence, which denotes the point or 
bulb of concussion where the blow was applied, is almost 
invariably observable at the end of the flake ; and when, in 
addition to this, we find also other fragments in further 
progress of formation into some form of implement ; and 
others, again, complete and rather artistic in finish , as arrow- 
heads, with barbs and tangs, the sides minutely chipped, and 
the two surfaces ingeniously constructed one much more 
convex than the other : under such circumstances, we cannot 
arrive at any other reasonable conclusion but that we have 
before us the veritable manufactures of a primitive people; 
as it requires no arguments to prove that the crude flints, 
the flakes, and finished weapons are all historically connected 
with each other, and form individual links in the same chain 
of reasoning. Hence flint or stone implements and fragments 
which can be shewn to conform to the premises already laid 
down, both geologically and structurally , are undoubtedly 
genuine. 
There is one very remarkable fact connected with stone and 
flint implements, that the same form appears to have originated 
in the minds of various races of people widely separated by 
time and space, as the primaeval Celtic inhabitants of Britain, 
Sweden, Denmark, and France, the lake dwellers of 
