Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/203

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FINDS
195

store, and hands it to B for the owner, and B advertises, and does what else he should to discover the owner, and fails in this, the finder may demand it of B, tendering B's expenses in discharge of his lien. There was at one time some disposition to say that if A found goods buried in B's lands, they were the property of B; but this seems to have passed away, or rather never to have been settled law, and the rule above stated, that the place where found has no effect whatever on the right of the finder, is without qualification. 7. If a reward be offered, which is specific and certain, or can be made so by reference to a certain standard, the finder by bringing the thing found to the owner, or otherwise complying with the terms of the advertisement, becomes a party to a contract offered to all by the advertiser, and may sue for the compensation or reward promised. But if the advertisement is general only, as that the finder shall be liberally rewarded, the finder has no specific claim, and can have no action. 8. The rule that the finder is owner against all the world except the original owner has one important exception. A finder of what the law calls a chose in action, or mere evidence of debt or claim, cannot demand payment of it; and if one should pay a note, a check, or a lottery ticket, to a holder known by the payer to have come into possession of it by finding, the payer would be bound to pay the amount to the owner who could prove his property. 9. A finder may incur punishment as for crime, by misconduct about the property he finds. Thus, if he knows the owner, or there are circumstances which, if he chose to profit by them, would lead him to the owner, a conversion of the property to his own use is larceny or theft. But it is not larceny unless the animus furandi existed at the time of the appropriation; for if the finder only discovered the owner after he had made the appropriation, and then concealed his finding, it would seem to be the law that he is answerable only in damages.

FINDS, a term recently applied by English archæologists to deposits of objects connected with human life, and sometimes associated with human remains, but of prehistoric or unknown origin. The chief aim of scientific research in regard to them is to ascertain the historical relation and condition of the human beings which they represent. As the development of civilization is not a uniform process, the discovery of a few objects made and used by a prehistoric tribe is not a sufficient index to the exact place of that tribe in history. Within certain limits there is a real consistency in stages of civilization; but in the present state of prehistoric archæology it is hardly possible to make a classification which would correctly represent the sequence of forms and materials. The antiquaries of Denmark, a country especially rich in relics, classified their finds according to some leading features that seemed to indicate a regular sequence. They concluded that there had been an age when men used only implements of stone and bone, and were ignorant of the use of metals; that an age had succeeded when the use of bronze was known, and probably that of gold; and that there was a third age, when iron had superseded other metals for weapons and utensils. All the finds were consequently classified according to these three ages. It proved, however, that such exact lines could not be maintained. Men did not immediately cease to use stone implements when bronze was introduced; and bronze continued to be employed after the use of iron was well known. Another mode of classification is followed in France, where the finds are generally arranged in the museums after the following order:

Stone Age. 1. Epoch of extinct animals.
2. Epoch of migrated existing animals.
3. Epoch of domesticated existing animals.
Metal Age. 1. The bronze epoch.
2. The iron epoch.

This classification, suggested by the archæologist Lartet, best serves our purpose of making a rapid survey and furnishing a short description of the objects found in ancient habitations of both hemispheres. For the various theories in relation to these finds, as well as for the nature of the places where they have been discovered, see American Antiquities, Archæology, Bone Caves, and Lake Dwellings.—Stone Age. Finds of objects classified as belonging to the first epoch of the stone age have been made principally in the caverns of Aurignac, in the hills of Fajoles, the Trou de la Fontaine, the cave of Sainte-Reine, the grotte des Fées at Arcy, the caves of Vergisson, Vallières, La Chaise, Gorge d'Enfer, Moustier, Pey de l'Azé, of Périgord, and of the department of Ariége, in France; in Kent's cave, Brixham, Gower, Kirkdale, and Wells, in England; in the caves of Chiampo and Laglio near Lake Como, of Palermo, San Ciro, and Macagnone, in Italy and Sicily; in a few caves in Spain, Algeria, Egypt, and Syria; in caves near the lake of Sumidouro in Brazil; and especially in Belgium, as near Liége, at Engis, Engihoul, and Naulette. In these caverns, and sometimes also on the surface of the ground or buried in it, have been found large quantities of chipped flints, arrowheads, and various stone implements, to all of which archæologists usually give the common name of hatchets. The commonest of the worked flints is the almond-shaped type. These instruments are oval hatchets carefully chipped all over the surface so as to form a cutting edge. The Moustier type is a pointed flint wrought on one side, the other being entirely plain. The third type is that of knives; they are thin and narrow tongue-shaped flakes, with one of the ends chipped to a point, and were used as scrapers. Others were wrought so as to do service as augers. Near Amiens were discovered small globular bodies with a hole through the middle, which are believed to be