103 
WEAPONS. 
At first, their chief weapons were a stone, which they 
threw; and a stick, which they fashioned into a club to 
strike with. Now it is remarkable that from these roots I 
have been able to trace a connecting link with the weapons 
of flint which are found at Bridlington ; and it is chiefly to 
illustrate this fact that I have written this Paper, as it 
stamps the implements which are found there as the very 
earliest that can exist upon this island. 
The sling-stone is familiar to every one ; but we should not 
omit to remark, that when we compare the feeble force of a 
stone thrown from the hand, and the short distance it can be 
sent, with the power and distance which a stone can be 
hurled from a sling, the invention of the sling in the first 
ages of man was quite as important as the modem improve- 
ment of the rifle compared to the old flint gun, to this 
generation. 
It is impossible to decide when the sling was invented, but 
we know it was used at a very early period in the East, and 
might have been brought to this island by the first emigrants. 
I find, however, that they did not confine themselves to the 
sling, as I have picked up very large stones which were 
undoubtedly used as weapons ; too large and too rough for 
throwing from a sling, although they were used by the same 
persons who used sling- stones, as both kinds were left 
together, with other weapons, on the ground where they had 
been fighting. 
The variety of patterns of sling-stones is very great, and 
represent the ingenuity and taste of the inventors. There 
are different sizes of circular balls of flint, and circles of flat 
flint, or flat on one side and elevated nearly to a point on the 
other ; square flints of different sizes, with flat and uneven 
surfaces; and triangles of the same kind; and ovals, more 
