Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 2.djvu/59

Rh 1. Flint flakes, apparently intended for arrow-heads or knives.

2. Pointed weapons, some probably lance or spear-heads.

3. Oval or almond-shaped implements, presenting a cutting edge all round.

In M. de Perthes' museum, and in the engravings of his "Antiquités Celtiques et Antédiluviennes," many other forms of what he considers to be implements may be seen, but upon them the traces of the hand of man are to my mind less certain in character. The flints resembling in form various animals, birds, and other objects, must I think be regarded as the effect of accidental concretion and of the peculiar colouring and fracture of flint, rather than as designedly fashioned. This is, however, a question into which I need not enter, as it in no way affects that now before us. Suffice it that there exists an abundance of implements found in the drift which are evidently the work of the hand of man, and that their formation cannot possibly be regarded as the effect of accident or the result of natural causes. When once their degree of antiquity has been satisfactorily proved, it will be a matter for further investigation whether there are not other traces to be found of the race of men who fashioned these implements, besides the implements themselves.

These objects I must now consider in the order proposed, with reference to their analogies and differences in form, when compared with those of what, for convenience sake, I will call the Stone period.

There is a considerable resemblance between the flint flakes apparently intended for arrow-heads and knives (the first of the classes into which I have divided the implements), and those which when found in this country, or on the continent, are regarded as belonging to a period but slightly prehistoric. The fact is, that wherever flint is used as a material from which implements are fashioned, many of the flakes or splinters arising from the chipping of the flint, are certain to present sharp points or cutting edges, which by a race of men living principally by the chase are equally certain to be regarded as fitting points for their darts or arrows, or as useful for cutting purposes; they are so readily formed, and are so well adapted for such uses without any further fashioning, that they have been employed in all ages just as struck from off the flint. The very simplicity of their form will, however, prevent those fabricated at the earliest period from being distinguishable from those made at the present day, provided no change has taken place in the surface of the flint by long exposure to some chemical influence. As also they are produced most frequently by a single blow, it is at all times difficult, among a mass of flints, to distinguish those flakes formed accidentally by natural causes, from those which have been made by the hand of man; an experienced eye will