lity, those of our stone hatchets were fastened which have a bent and polished edge.
The most ancient inhabitants, or as we may term them, the aborigines, would have made but little progress, had they attempted to fell a large and full-grown tree, with nothing more than so imperfect an instrument as the stone hatchet. They doubtless pursued the same method as the savages of our days, who when about to fell a tree with stone hatchets, avail themselves also of the assistance of fire, in the following manner. In the first place some of the bark is peeled off, by means of the hatchet, from the tree which is to be felled. In the opening thus made coals are placed, which are fanned till they are all consumed. By this means a portion of the stem is charred, which is then hewn away with the hatchet, and fresh coals are continually added until the tree is burned through. In our peat bogs old stems of trees have been found which appear to have been thus felled by stone hatchets with the aid of fire.
It can scarcely be doubted that their boats must have been of a very simple kind. From several relics which have been dug up[1], we may conclude that the aborigines in the
- ↑ A curious boat of this description was found in a bog in the barony of Farney. It was formed of the hollowed trunk of an oak tree, and measured twelve feet in length, and three feet in breadth, and, as will be seen by the accompanying engraving, derived from Mr. E. P. Shirley's interesting 'Account of the Barony of Farney,' was furnished with handles at the extremities, evidently for facility of transport from one lough to another, in a country where so large a portion of the surface was covered by water. In the Archæologia (vol. xxvi. p. 264) will be found an engraving and description of an ancient canoe found at North Stoke in Sussex, and now in the British Museum. It is no less than 3.5 feet in length, and is formed of one half of a large oak tree cut off square at the ends and hollowed. In the description of the North Stoke canoe will be found references to various similar boats found in this country; and we read in it, that "Beverley, in his account of Virginia p. 198. says he had seen a canoe made by the Indians of a tree hollowed by fire, and cut and scraped by their stone tomahawks, 30 feet long."—T.
