51 
GUN-FLINTS, &C. 
Australian Gold. Case No. 23. 
Some fine specimens of rich golcl-quartz from Australia, and 
models of Australian gold nuggets, are here grouped together. 
Early references to the occurrence of gold in Australia go 
back to the year 1823, if not earlier, but the first notice by a 
scientific authority seems to have been due to Count Strzelecki. 
It appears that in 1839 he discovered traces of gold in New 
South Wales, but on relating the circumstance to the Governor, 
secrecy was enjoined for reasons of State policy. In 1841 the 
Rev. W. B. Clarke wrote to a friend in the colony, mentioning 
that he had found gold ore ; but neither of those facts was 
published in the colony, and they were wholly unknown in 
Europe. The study of the auriferous tracts of the Uralian 
mountains enabled Murchison, in 1844, to predict the discovery 
of gold in Australia. It was not, however, until 1851 that 
public attention was attracted to the subject, when Mr. E. H. 
Hargraves announced the existence of an extensive gold-field, 
and thus led to the rapid development of the marvellous resources 
of the country. 
Gun-Flints. Case No. 22. 
This case contains a complete series of specimens illustrating 
the manufacture of gun-flints. They were collected by Mr. 
Skertchly when working, as an officer of the Geological Survey, 
in the neighbourhood of Brandon, on the borders of Suffolk and 
Norfolk. Brandon has always been the centre of the gun-flint 
industry, and Mr. Skertchly believed that the art of flint- 
working had survived in this district from prehistoric times. 
On the introduction of percussion- caps, the flint-knapping 
industry rapidly decayed, but there is always a demand for 
gun-flints for exportation to semi-civilised peoples, and the 
opening-up of remote parts of Africa has recently stimulated 
the trade. 
The specimens here exhibited illustrate the various types of 
gun-flint ; the successive stages in their manufacture ; and the 
actual tools employed, many of which are curiously archaic in 
type. First the block of flint is quartered ; then long flakes are 
struck off ; and from these flakes, broken transversely, the gun- 
flints are trimmed — “ knapping” being the technical expression 
for the final formation of the gun-flint. 
Some tinder-boxes, with their flint and steel, and several 
other antiquated fire -producing appliances are here exhibited. 
Stone Implements. Case No . 23. 
Associated with the bones of many of the extinct mammalia 
of the pleistocene period there have been found great numbers 
of flint implements of contemporary age. A French antiquary, 
the late M. Boucher de Perthes, was the first to direct attention 
