Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/45

Rh coating to denote age is sometimes obtained by boiling the implement for weeks in a kettle, and then polishing on a polishing wheel, of course removing the distinctive character of the ridges. The greater proportion of these arrow-heads are made of French flint, yellow and semitransparent.

Scrapers are very rarely made. Genuine ones are so common in the district as to render imitations unprofitable. I have a spurious flint dagger in my possession, which would deceive none but the veriest novice. Chipped axes are, next to arrow-heads, the implements most frequently manufactured. As they command good prices and are somewhat difficult of detection, their disposal to enthusiastic and unsuspicious collectors is a remunerative calling. A spurious Neolithic axe of grey opaque flint, ground and polished, was offered to a friend of the writer by a Brandon workman. It was stated to have been found in a gravel pit at a depth of twenty feet! It is worthy of remembrance that gum is