fully chipped lance-heads or daggers, the cups fashioned in the lathe, and the ornaments of jet, appear to have been of later in- troduction than most of the others. Moreover, though we may regard these particular objects as comparatively late, the bulk of the others, such, for instance, as celts, and possibly arrow-heads, were subject to so little modification during the whole of the Neolithic Period, that it is almost impossible, from form only, to assign to individual specimens any chronological position. The light reflected by foreign discoveries, such as those in the Swiss lakes, and by the habits and customs of modern savages, enables us, to some extent, to appreciate the relations and bearings of our native stone antiquities; but the greater part of them have unfortunately been discovered as isolated examples, and without attendant circumstances calculated to furnish data for determining their exact age, or the manners of those who used them.
Enough facts, however, are at our command to show that preceding the use of metal in this country, there was a time when cutting instruments and weapons were made of stone, either chipped or ground to an edge; and to encourage a hope that future discoveries may throw more light on the length of the period through which those who used them lived, and on the stage of culture that they had reached. It will, I trust, be of some service to those who are labouring, and will yet labour, in this field of research, to find in these pages a classification of the forms at present known, a summary account of the discoveries hitherto made, and references to the books from which further details may be gathered.
I now turn to the relics of a still earlier period, when the art of grinding stone to an edge appears to have been unknown, and when man was associated in this country with a group of animals which has now for the most part disappeared, either by migration to other latitudes, or by absolute extinction of the race.
