ANTIQUITIES OF THE STONE-PERIOD.
15
probably because the edge is so thin that in most cases it would have broken to pieces in polishing. There are also crooked half-moon shaped knives of flint, which are occasionally provided with saw-like teeth, on which account they are named saw-blades.
In addition to these implements, which were inserted into wooden handles, the aborigines had others which were bored with regular holes for handles, that is, mauls or hammers[1], among which those which have perforations close to the neck are commonly called axes[2] They are not formed of
'
- ↑ The subjoined representation, (taken from Mr. E. P. Shirley's "Account of the Territory or Dominion of Farney,") reduced to one half the original size, exhibits a very interesting specimen of one of these hammer-heads, found in a bog near the banks of Lough Fee, in Ireland. It is of hornstone, and is remarkable on account of its peculiar form, and the skill and precision with which so hard a substance has been fashioned and polished.—T.
- ↑ The accompanying engraving represents a stone maul or hammer of rather unusual form, found at Llanmadock in Gower, now preserved in the Museum of the Royal Institution at Swansea, and exhibited at a Meeting of the Archaeological Institute by Mr. George Grant Francis. Its length is 6 in. and its weight 23 oz.—T.
