35 
Jlrt of making Gun-Flints . 
Among the silex it is therefore that the fabricators of 
gun-flints have found the material truly proper for the 
exercise of the art. And among the numerous varieties 
of this species of stone, there is only one which can be 
advantageously fashioned by the hammer alone. The 
agates and chalcedonies, which are also applied to this 
use, are brought to the requisite form by the mill of the 
lapidary. The makers of gun-flints in France denomi- 
nate the stone of which they make use caillou, and they 
themselves are called caillouteurs. The word caillou is 
used by them to denote the best and most serviceable 
kind of flint ; whereas, in the other parts of France, it 
denotes a pebble ; that is to say, a rounded stone, what- 
ever may be its nature. 
The flint of the workmen in gun-flints belongs to that 
species of silex which naturalists have denominated silex 
gregarius, silex ignarius, or the feuerstein of the Ger 
mans, &c. But every coarse flint is not proper for this 
use. In fact, the best stone is far from being plentiful 
in nature. Many countries are entirely deprived of 
them ; and the author thinks that it may probably be af- 
firmed, that France almost alone possesses that variety of 
silex which can be easily broken into gun-flints, since he 
cannot suppose that the art of making them could remain 
a mystery to other nations who do not practice it, though 
they make great use of the flints : the art itself being so 
simple, that they must have speedily acquired it, if they 
have possessed the material. 
In his description of the variety of silex here alluded 
to, he gives it the name of silex pyromachus, to express 
its use, which he prefers to the term silex sclopetarius, as 
being more musical. 
The external characters are : 
The silex pyromachus, when dug up, is always cover- 
ed with a white external crust, one or two lines or more 
