Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/146

138 Among remains of the prehistoric stone industry in this country the implement most largely represented is the scraper, or "thumb flint." It generally consists of a flake having the thick end worked into a semicircular edge and slanting to its flat face, while the body, or "neck," may be held between the fingers. But sometimes there is no neck, and the implement may be of a discoidal, circular or horseshoe shape. Some have a concave edge and are known as "hollow scrapers," a type of implement hitherto found more frequently in Ireland than in Britain. The tools used for boring have, of course, a sharp point, but otherwise they may be regarded as scrapers.

Of all the materials utilized in prehistoric times, flint was the most serviceable, on account of its hardness, and the facility with which it could be worked into any required shape by the process of chipping. Flint is only found in situ in chalk formations, but transported nodules of it are frequently met with in glacial drift deposits and other gravels. It has been proved that the prehistoric people were in the habit of procuring a better quality by mining operations. At Grime's Graves, near Brandon, in Suffolk, and at Cissbury, near Worthing, in Sussex, the disused mines have been discovered and investigated. It appears that shafts had been driven down to the requisite depth from which narrow galleries were run in all directions. In the former, the actual deer-horn picks were found in the face of the cutting, just as the miners left