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320 Ireland this form not unfrequently occurs. I have several specimens with the hollow as regular in its sweep as any of the scrapers of the ordinary form, and I have thought it advisable to figure a typical example as Fig. 226. They seem well adapted for scraping into regular shape the stems of arrows or the shafts of spears, or for fashioning bone pins. Among modern artificers in wood, bone, ivory, or metal, scraping tools play a far more important part than would at first sight appear probable, looking at the abundance and perfection of our cutting tools and files. The latter, indeed, are merely compound forms of "scrapers."

Fig. 226.—North of Ireland.

A less symmetrical hollow scraper from the Culbin Sands has been engraved; as has been another which Dr. Joseph Anderson used in the production of an arrow-shaft, and which he found to be a very efficient tool. Some writers have regarded these hollow-edged scrapers as saws, but I think erroneously.

Implements of the same character have been found in Egypt, and in France, and probably exist in other countries.