310 
ME. PEESTWICH OX ELIXT-ENIPLEMEXTS. 
APPENDIX. 
(A.) Letter from Joh^" Evaxs, Esq., F.S.A., F.G.S., to the author, on the Form and 
Nature of the Flint-implements. Dated, — Nash Mills, Kernel Hempsted, May 25, 1859. 
My deae Sie, — In accordance with your wish I send you a few notes upon the flint- 
implements, or weapons discovered in the beds of drift which we lately Ksited together 
in the neighbourhood of Abbeville and Amiens, regarding them from an antiquarian 
rather than a geological point of -view. 
What appears to me of most importance, is to point out wherein these implements 
from the drift resemble or difier from those in some degree analogous with them, which 
are so frequently found in this country and on the Continent, and are usually considered 
to be the work of the primitive, or as for convenience sake I will caU them, the Celtic 
inhabitants of this part of Europe. 
The resemblances and difierences may consist in material, form, or workmanship, and 
on each of these points I will say a few words. 
1st. As to the material from which they are formed,— the flints derived from the chalk. 
This is the same as has been so extensively employed for the manufactme of weapons 
and implements by uncivilized man in all ages and in all coimtries where flints are to 
be found ; the hardness of the stone and the readiness with which it may be fractmed 
in such a manner as to produce a cutting edge, giKng it a preference over all other 
stones, and in some instances having caused it to be sought for at a distance, when not 
found upon the spot, for the purpose of converting it into knives, axes, or aiTow-heads. 
There is, however, this to be observed about the weapons or implements Lorn the drift, 
that though they are found in a country abounding in flint, the stones from which they 
were formed do not appear to have been so carefully selected, nor to have been as free 
from flaws and imperfections as those employed for a similar pui’pose by the Celtic 
tribes. These latter also not unfrequently used other stones, as greenstone*, syenite, 
porphyry, quartz, jade and serpentine, as materials for weapons or tools, but those fi'om 
the drift are, as far as has hitherto been ascertained, exclusively of flint. 
2. As to form, there is for the most part a marked difierence between the worked 
flints from the drift and those of the ordinary Stone period. The former may, for my 
present purpose, all be grouped under three heads : — 
1. Flint flakes, apparently intended for arrow-heads or knives. 
2. Pointed weapons, analogous to lance or spear heads. 
3. Oval or almond-shaped implements presenting a cutting edge all roimd. 
It is in the first-named class of implements only that there is any close analogy with 
those not unfrequently found with other remains of human art, which are considered to 
belong in this country to a period but slightly prehistoric. AATierever flint is used as a 
material for the formation of tools or weapons, many of the flakes or splinters arising 
from the chipping of the flint, will of necessity present sharp cutting edges, and are 
certain in consequence to be utilized. These flakes seem peculiarly well adapted for 
points of darts or arrows, or for cutting purposes, and for such have been used in all 
ages. But the very simplicity of their form prevents those fabricated at the earliest period 
* Arch. Assoc. Joiirual, vol. ix. p. 65. 
