Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/524

502 these, one end of the flake has been worked to an oblique straight scraping edge, forming an obtuse angle with one side of the flake, and an acute angle with the other; the point being sometimes on the right, and sometimes on the left side of the flake. Specimens of each variety, Nos. and, which were found together, are engraved as Figs. 398 and 399. The long side of the flake is usually but little worn, but the short side and the oblique end are always minutely chipped, and sometimes have the edge quite rounded by wear. This is particularly the case in Fig. 398, of which the long side also has been used for scraping. This flake is considerably curved longitudinally, and its point has much the appearance of having been used as a sort of drill. It seems probable that the obliquity of the edge at the end of the tool is connected with the manner in which it was held in the hand.

The perfectly sharp condition of one edge of the flake, while the other is chipped away and worn, is probably due to its having been protected by some sort of wooden handle. We have already seen how in the Swiss Lake-dwellings flakes of flint were mounted; and though probably for these small flakes, such highly-finished handles were not prepared, yet the insertion of one edge of a flake of flint into a piece of split stick involves no great trouble, while it would shield the fingers from being cut, and would tend to strengthen the flint. In several of the French caves, extremely slender flakes have been found, with one edge quite worn away and the other untouched, a condition for which it is difficult to account on any other hypothesis than that of their having been inserted longitudinally into some sort of back or handle, probably of wood.

At least two specimens of another form have occurred in which both ends, instead of only one, have been slanted off. One of these (No. 2,253) is shown in Fig. 400. The other is of precisely the same size and shape. In both, the two sloping ends and the short side are