about eight inches long, or rather more, and as thick as one's leg, or rather less, and cylindrical;
Fig. 98.—Australian flake. in my own collection. Actual size.
they have a stick as large as the shaft of a lance, and three cubits or rather more in length, and at the end of it they fasten firmly another piece of wood, eight inches long, to give more weight to this part;
Fig. 99.—Flint flake from Loch Neagh, Ireland. In my own collection.
then pressing their naked feet together, they hold the stone as with a pair of pincers, or the vice of a carpenter's bench. They take the stick (which is cut off smooth at the end) with both hands, and set it well home against the edge of the front of the stone, which also is cut smooth in that part; and then they press it against their breast, and with the force of the pressure there flies off a knife, with its point and edge on one side, as neatly as if one were to make them of a turnip with a sharp knife, or of iron in the fire."
Thus it appears that the obsidian flakes were made, not by blows, but by strong pressure; and the same is the case with the chert implements of the Esquimaux, according to the description given by Sir E. Belcher.[1] "Selecting," he says, "a log of wood in which a spoon-shaped cavity
- ↑ Trans. of the Ethnological Soc., New Series, vol. i. p. 138.
