Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/196

174 I have seen another nearly 6 inches long, but little polished, and almost oval in section, which was found at Melton, near Woodbridge, Suffolk. This also is blunt at one end, and ground to a semicircular edge at the other. A fragment of a tool of this class, found near Maidenhead, is in the Geological Museum in Jermyn Street. Another, more roughly chipped out and but partially polished, was found on Mount Harry, near Lewes, and is preserved in the Museum in that town. It is narrow at one end, where it is ground to a sharp edge.

The late Mr. H. Durden, of Blandford, had another, found on Iwerne Minster Down, Dorset, 5 inches long and 1 inches broad, more celt-like in type. One face is more convex than the other; the sides are sharp, and one end is squarer than the other, which comes to a rounded point.

In my own collection is one of oval section (5 inches), polished nearly all over, from Burwell Fen, Cambridge; another (4 inches), much polished on the surface, is from the Thames at Twickenham. A third, from Quy Fen, Cambridge (4 inches), is rather broader in its proportions, and of pointed oval section. A fourth, from Bottisham Fen (4 inches), has a narrow segmental edge, and is rounded at the butt, where it is slightly battered. These may perhaps be regarded as chisels.

In the Greenwell Collection is what appears to be a fragment of a chisel, still about 4 inches long, found at Northdale, Bridlington. The same form of implement is found in France. I have a fragment of one which was found by M. Dimpre, of Abbeville, in the old encampment known as the Camp de César, near Pontrémy.

In the case of some very similar implements of flint from Scandinavia it is the broad end that is usually sharp, though some are entirely unground.

Occasionally these implements occur in this country in the same unpolished condition, like Fig. 108, from the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmunds. This also presents on the more highly ridged face the same curvature in the direction of its length as is to be observed on the polished specimens, and the pointed end seems the sharper and the better adapted for use.

I have a fine unground specimen (6 inches) from Feltwell, Norfolk, and another (4 inches) from Chart Farm, Ightham, Kent, given to me by Mr. B. Harrison.

Unfortunately there are no indications by which to judge of the method of hafting such instruments. It appears probable, however, that the broader end may have been attached at the end of a handle, like those in Fig. 104, and that the tool was a sort of narrow adze or pick, adapted for working out cavities in wood, or it may be for