quartzite. The work of forming them must have been that almost of a lifetime: perhaps it was perfected in successive generations. The second kind of hammer is of elongated form, round or oval in cross-section, and suited to be held in the hand, though, perhaps, in some cases lashed to a wooden handle. It much resembles the ordinary stone axe or celt, but differs in having a blunt end, indented with blows, instead of an edge. This almond-shaped hammer was employed to chip stones, to drive wedges, and to break nuts and bones. One example from Hochelaga has a rough depression on one side, which may have been produced by hammering wedges with the side instead of the end, or may have been intended to give a better hold to the end of the handle. Hammers precisely of this kind are found in the caves of Perigord and in Sweden. The savages of all countries seem to have discovered that dioritic rocks, from the toughness of the crystals of hornblende which they contain, are specially suited for the formation of hammers of this kind, so that wherever greenstone can be found it is employed. The third and most artificial kind of stone hammer is that with a groove around it, by means of which it could be attached to a handle or slung upon a tough withe. Such a hammer is sometimes merely an oval pebble with a groove worked around it, but some examples, especially those of the old mound-builders, are elaborately grooved and carefully shaped; and there are some with two grooves, the working of which must have cost much labour. Some specimens are so small as to weigh only a few ounces, and one from the ancient copper mines of Lake Superior, now in the museum of the Geological Survey of Canada, is 11 inches long, and weighs more than 25lb. The larger end of it has been much bruised and broken, and it was evidently a miner's sledge-hammer. Grooved stones of this kind occur on prehistoric sites in Europe, though they have usually been regarded as plummets or sling-stones. In America similarly-grooved pebbles are often found in circumstances which lead to the belief that they have been sinkers for nets. These are, however, usually of stone too soft to have been used for hammers, and have no marks of use on the ends. Sling-stones, properly so called, we probably have not in North America; but there are two kinds of stones used as weapons, and which resemble what have been regarded as sling-stones in Europe. The first is a stone, grooved, and fastened to a cord the other end of which is attached to the right arm. This stone, Carver tells us, was used as a weapon with deadly effect by certain tribes west of the Mississippi. The other was a sort of slung-shot. As described by Lewis and Clarke, and as appears from specimens in collections, it is a pear-shaped stone, sheathed in leather or hide, and attached by a thong two inches long to a stout handle, with a second thong by which it can be fastened to the wrist. Champlain found a similar weapon in use among the nations of Western Canada, and stones of this kind are used by the South Sea Islanders. I have a very fine one of calcareous spar from the New Hebrides, and very neatly formed and effective specimens of heavy iron ore are found on American Indian sites. They occur also among the relics of the Stone age Scandinavia. If slings properly so-called were used by European prehistoric men, it is likely that, like David of old, they contented themselves with smooth in stones from the brook, and did not waste their labour in shaping round stones to be lost the first time they were thrown. The American Indians were, however, in the habit of heaping stones in the inside of their forts to be thrown at their enemies either by hand or by a sling, and some of the heaps of chipped flints noticed by Foster and by Squier as found in Ohio and Illinois may have been collected for this purpose. One implement of the Flint age which has recently attracted much attention, and which has been elaborately discussed in the beautiful work of Messrs. Lartet and Christy, is the pogamaugan, or striker, an absolutely universal weapon of the rude hunter and warrior in all ages and countries. One of its earliest forms is that of an antler trimmed into the shape of a sort of pick or hammer, and this, still in use among the Western Indians, occurs under precisely the same form in the cave deposits of the Reindeer period in France. The primitive hunter well knows the effective use of the antler by the deer at bay, and nothing is more natural than that he should adapt this weapon to his own use, so that perhaps the antler is the oldest of all strikers or war-clubs. But the implement has other forms. A stick with a clubbed end was a usual form in America, and corresponds to the waddy so effectively used by the natives of Tasmania and other Austral savages. This was rendered more effective by a sharp bone or antler, or a chipped flint, firmly socketed in the wood and bound with thongs. Sometimes a row of flints was set along the edge of the handle, and a saw-edged sword of this kind used by the Mexican tribes, and fitted with very Paleolithic obsidian or flint blades, was much dreaded by the early Spanish adventurers. Schoolcraft and Catlin figure many strange and grotesque forms of these weapons, and they abound in museums. Those of a more modern date have a metal blade instead of a sharp stone. To this class of weapons undoubtedly belong most of those strangely-shaped stone axes and picks, with a socket for a small handle, which are found in primitive graves both in the Old and New World (Fig. 24). They are generally of so small size and weight, and the socket for the handle of so small diameter, that antiquaries are disposed to regard them as ornaments, or "batons of command," Fig. 24. or sceptres, rather than as weapons. This is, however, an error. The theory of the implement is that it enables the blow of the arm to be delivered on a limited spot, so as to pierce or fracture the skull of an enemy or a wild animal. For this purpose it does not need to be large or heavy. On the contrary, lightness is necessary to portability, and to that rapidity of stroke which is everything in combat and in hunting. Hence many of the American pogamaugans and tomahawks are so small and light as not to appear at all formidable; but, guided by a quick eye and wielded by a rapid hand, they are really most deadly weapons, and they were often thrown with great precision and effect. Champlain has depicted a Huron warrior armed for the fight, his small warhatchet contrasting strangely with his great shield and long bow. To the light and agile Indian or his European prototype, the heavy mace of a medieval warrior would have been as great an incumbrance as his ponderous coat of mail. On this subject an interesting letter from Mr. Anderson, published in the "Reliquiæ Aquitanice," well deserves perusal. Among other facts he mentions that a small skullcracker is carried by the western Indians in their canoes to kill fish when caught. The European aborigines who speared or angled for large fish would have equally needed such a weapon. While on this subject it may be well to remark that it is a mistake to suppose that heavy stone axes would be required to slay such large game as the urus, the woolly rhinoceros, or the mammoth. The American hunter for such purposes used the arrow and the javelin, and his object was to have these as sharp and slender as possible, that, urged with the bow or from the arm, they might pierce the vital parts of the animal. We read in the narratives of the early adventurers in America of the rapidity and accuracy with which the Indian could launch his arrows or javelins. Slender arrows of cane, with points hardened in the fire or tipped with small flints or pointed bones, were thrown with such force that they have been known to pierce through the body of a horse or a buffalo from side to side. I have seen the war-arrows of a western Indian which had actually been used in fight with Europeans armed with firearms, and which were tipped with thin flints less than an inch long and half an inch wide. If the aboriginal European really derived any considerable part of his subsistence from very large animals, we may be assured that he did not kill them with stone celts or huge hatchets and socalled spears of chipped flint, but with points as small as those of the smallest flint flakes or bone javelins; and he probably pursued these animals, like the American Indian, during winter, when their action was impeded by the deep snow. We also learn from American examples that a very rude chipped flint may be fitted into an elaborately ornamented handle, and when the latter has perished by decay, the flint may afford a very imperfect idea of the skill of the artificer. The most primitive of all cutting instruments of stone are flint flakes chipped or pressed from quartzite, jasper, agate, chert, or flint, any of which stones will serve the purpose, and used at once without any other preparation. Such flakes occur in millions in the old European caves and kitchenmiddens, in the vicinity of the chalk districts, where excellent flint nodules are so abundant that the old savages could be prodigal of knives. They are also very abundant on ancient Indian sites in America, though it is often impossible to distinguish those intended for use from those thrown away in the preparation of more elaborate chipped implements. Nor can they always be distinguished from the chips broken by frost from siliceous rocks untouched by human hands. Such flakes, while the first, are probably also the last stone implements used by man. The Mexican barbers at the time of the conquest shaved their customers with such flakes, and the old Egyptians and Jews used them in surgical operations at a time when their general civilisation had attained to a very high pitch of advancement. But flint is susceptible of much higher uses. Chipped by the skilful hand of the practised arrowmaker, it took the form of triangular, tanged, and leaf-shaped arrows and spears, of saws and knives. The forms of these are of the same plan throughout America with very little variation, and these forms are those also of Europe-so much so that a tray filled with European arrow-heads cannot be distinguished from a tray of American ones. It will be quite unnecessary, therefore, to enter into any description of them. I may content myself with noticing a few points known as to America which may help to explain European facts. One of these is as to the mode of their manufacture. Some persons seem to think that when a certain stage of civilisation or semi-barbarism had been attained, any one could make neat flint arrows and spears. This is a great mistake. Alike in the ruder and more advanced American tribes there were professional arrow-makers, whose skill was acknowledged often over wide districts. In prehistoric times also the tribes inhabiting the mountains and rocky districts were especially arrow-makers, and traded the produce of their skill with the tribes of the plains and valleys. We are even told that the travelling merchants of flint weapons were privileged persons, allowed to go from tribe to tribe without molestation. No doubt, any one could in an emergency manage to tip an arrow in some way, but it required long practice to make well-shaped arrow-heads, and it was not every district that could afford the best material for their manufacture. In some modes of making them, indeed, it required two skilled persons, one to hold the stone, the other to strike off small pieces with rapid and dextrous blows of a hammer and chisel. It results from this that the rudeness or skill of the manufacture of flint weapons may be no test of age. age. One tribe had often more skilful makers or better material than others, and a party out on a hunting or military expedition might be reduced to the necessity of making arrows under disadvantageous circumstances. Hence in the same sites very different kinds of arrow-heads may be found. In illustration of this I have before me six Canadian arrow-heads in the collection of a friend. They are of two types, the long and short, and are made of similar kinds of dark quartzite. They are from Hopkins Island in the St. Lawrence, a place to which the Indians resorted in pursuit of wild fowl, in killing which these arrows, larger than those commonly used in war, were probably used. These specimens were selected from a large number, showing all sorts of gradations from the rudest to the most perfect, and yet all probably made and used by the same tribes at the same time and in the same circumstances. The southern Indians are shown by Jones to have used large arrow-heads with chisel-shaped ends for striking off the heads of small birds, and some of their arrow-heads which at first sight seem rude and misshapen are found to have been bevelled with opposite slopes on the sides, so as to give a rotatory motion, constituting as it were rifled arrows. In America the rudest of all rude implements, similar to the Paleolithic type of the European archæologists, were used not by the ruder tribes but by the more settled and civilised agricultural nations. They are found most abundantly in the river valleys occupied by the southern tribes of the United States, and in the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio. It is I suggested many years ago, when writing of a visit to the celebrated granite-pits of St. Acheul, that these may have been worked in prehistoric times like the American flint-beds, and I find that Mr. Belgrand, in his recent report on the Paris Basin, which solves so many difficulties as to the French river gravels, regards these beds, and also those of Hoxne in England, as sites of manufactories of implements, though he thinks the manufacture was carried on when the water flowed at the height of these gravels. Rau has described in the Smithsonian Reports hoes from Illinois 7 inches long and 6 inches broad, neatly chipped, and with two notches in the upper part for the attachment of a handle. Foster has figured two specimens from the same State, of rude form and without notches. One of them is no less than 13 inches long. They show in the lower part an abrasion attributable to long use in digging. Many of these American hoes, of the ruder forms first mentioned, are scarcely distinguishable from the broader styles of so-called Paleolithic implements found in Europe, while there is a sharper and narrower European type sometimes also found in America, and which may have been used as a pick rather than a hoe. It is quite true that in our ignorance, born of too great civilisation, it is often difficult for us to distinguish hoes from spears, tomahawks, or scrapers; but this renders all the more futile any attempt to assign these things to distinct ages from one another, or from more polished implements. In any case, American analogies would lead us to refer the larger forms of Paleolithic chipped implements to agricultural populations, and we should expect to find such implements in great numbers in the vicinity of alluvial grounds or near to river valleys, and unmixed with the household utensils and weapons of war and hunting, which might remain in connection with habitations or fortresses. Their abundance in the European river gravels gives countenance to the supposition that in Europe, as in America, the earliest prehistoric peoples were agricultural, though there may, no doubt, have been contemporary hunting tribes in the districts less suited for cultivation. the opinion of many American archeologists that) they were hoes or spades, and this is probably the most rational explanation of their use. The more civilised American tribes from the Gulf of Mexico to the valley of the St. Lawrence were agriculturists, and their culture of maize, beans, pumpkins, and tobacco was all carried on by manual labour, with hoes made of wood, or headed with bone, shell, or stone, which were used in great numbers in the spring, and then cast away or laid by in heaps, or buried in the ground until again required. Hunting tribes had no need of such tools. Even the more highly civilised nations of the Mississippi valley, who possessed copper implements, and were skilful artists in many ways, have left behind them vast numbers of rudely-chipped discs and flat flints, probably used in their agriculture. They are found in caches, or deposits of many together, as if quantities were used at one time. This would agree with the idea of their agricultural use. They would be prepared in large quantities for the planting time, when the whole tribe mustered, like the South Africans described by Livingstone, to till their fields; and when the work was over they would be gathered and hidden in some safe place till the next season, or perhaps buried as an offering to the god of the harvest. Abbott, in his "Stone Age in New Jersey," figures one example found with 149 others in a ploughed field. They were buried in the ground with the points up, and he remarks that such implements are not met with singly like the arrows, hatchets, and other weapons. In the museum of the Historical Society of Brooklyn I saw a hoe similar to those described by Abbott, and which had like them been found with many others arranged in a circle under the ground; and Mr. Jones, of the same city, the author of an excellent work on the antiquities of the Southern Indians, showed me some of these hoes with the edges evidently worn by use, and pointed out to me that Carver refers to the care and secrecy with which the Indians were in the habit of hiding their stores of stone implements and weapons. Squier describes a deposit in Ohio in which as many as 600 of these tools were found, while a vast In connection with these facts it may be pertinent multitude besides must have existed in it. He also to inquire whether we have formed any definite constates that at a place called Flint Ridge, in Ohio, ceptions of the habits and implements of the dense where certain concretions of chert suitable for these agricultural populations implied in the narrative of implements are found, countless pits, dug for these the antediluvian period in Genesis. Had they domesflints, occur for many miles. These excavations are ticated the horse or ox to plough their fields, or was often ten or fourteen feet deep, and acres in extent. all done by manual labour, as in America? Is it A somewhat similar place is described by Leidy in likely that they possessed metallic tools in sufficient a recent report on the geology of the Western terri- quantity for agricultural use even after the date, the tories. It is at the base of the Uintah Hills in seventh generation from Adam, assigned to the disWyoming, where vast quantities of jasper, agate, covery of the metals? Is it not likely that their agriand other stones suitable for implements, have been culture was carried on principally with primitive swept down upon the plain. Immense numbers of stone hoes? If so, we may expect to find in the these have been chipped and broken into angular river valleys of Western Asia vastly greater quanfragments, whether by art or nature does not seem tities of Paleolithic flints than those which the evident; but from the number of arrow-heads and gravels of Europe have afforded, and it would not other definitely-formed objects, it is evident that the be wonderful if millions of these rude implements place was for ages resorted to as a quarry and manu- should be recovered without our meeting with any factory. Nor need we wonder at this when we con- other evidence of civilisation or of human agency. sider the dense agricultural population evidenced by There must also have been quarries and excavations the mounds and earthworks of the old Alleghans in of great magnitude, out of which the demand for all the alluvial plains of the West, and that thou-flints among this primitive population was supplied. sands of industrious flint-chippers and migratory It is much to be desired, in the interest alike of traders must have been constantly employed in work- scientific and biblical archæology, that thorough exing the agates and jaspers of the hills, and trans-plorations should be made of those lands which are porting them to the towns and villages of the plains, historically the cradle of our species, to ascertain where they are still found in so great numbers. what traces remain of the prehistoric peoples who must have swarmed on the table-lands and river valleys of Asia before they were swept away by that diluvial catastrophe which is recorded alike in the pages of Moses and the clay tablets of Assyria, and the dread memory of which survives in the traditions of nearly every family of mankind. MANY A NORWEGIAN HOUSE. ANY of our readers will be aware that certain kinds of carpenters' work, such as doors and window-frames, have been for some time imported from Norway with advantage. A few details of the bolder experiment of importing a house, which has lately been made with apparent success, as reported in the "Times," will probably be found interesting. A gentleman in Devonshire, being compelled in the course of last year to build a house, and finding that the estimates submitted to him for plans of the usual kind exceeded what he was willing to spend, bethought him of what he had seen of houses in Norway. It so happened that he had rented a salmon river in that country for several years, and circumstances had caused him to see more than English sportsmen commonly see of the domestic life of the well-to-do class. He had been particularly struck with the comfort, elegance, and notable cleanness of their houses, with the equable temperature that was preserved in them in spite of a climate liable to extremes of heat and cold, and with the freshness, airiness, and general pleasantness of the rooms. An application to an architect in Christiania brought him several plans, one of which happened to be the plan of a house in Bergen, which he had inspected and admired. This plan, after a few modifications had been made in it, was adopted. An estimate and specifications were then obtained from a builder in Christiania, who undertook to erect the framework of the house, to pull it down, and to deliver the materials, duly numbered and prepared for transport and reconstruction, alongside a ship which the purchaser was to charter. The order for the house was sent in January, and within three months it was ready for transport. While the house was in course of construction at Christiania, certain necessary works of preparation had been going on in England. The cellars had been made in the usual way, a stone wall on which the wooden structure was to rest, rising about four feet from the ground, was built, and the brick flues of the house had been in.part erected. It may not be superfluous to suggest to any one who may be meditating a similar importation the necessity of extreme accuracy in reducing the "alen" of the Norwegian ground-plan to English feet. It would be a disastrous mistake to construct foundations which your house would not fit. The walls are made of pine wood about six inches thick, the interstices of the logs being filled with oakum, and the whole surface being plastered with a mixture of cowhair and lime. Outside the main wall there is a shell of wood, which is protected with paint against the action of the weather; and again inside there is another shell, which serves as a panelling to the rooms. By staining and varnishing this a good effect is produced. The cornices are carved, by the use of the riband saw, in devices of excellent taste. It should be noted that neither paper for the walls nor plaster for the ceiling is used | throughout the house. It is important to observe that everywhere the logs of timber are placed vertically, an arrangement which adds somewhat to the expense of building, but which, as the contraction of wood in drying is not lateral, but vertical, prevents the unevenness so often to be observed in the woodwork of English houses. To avoid the resonance which might be expected in a house so constructed, dry sand to the depth of four inches is placed between the ceiling of the cellars and the floors of the ground rooms, and again between the ceilings of these and the floors of the rooms above. In addition to this, the floors of both stories of the house are laid with deals two inches thick, and millboard is placed under each, with the effect of thoroughly deadening all sound. The house, which presents externally the appearance of a handsome villa residence, brighter indeed in colour than we commonly see in this country, is an oblong of about 74ft. by 56ft. On the ground floor, besides the kitchen with its offices, butler's pantry, front and inner hall, there are these principal rooms:Drawing-room, 29ft. by 16ft.; second drawing-room, 24ft. by 16ft.; library, 16ft. by 12ft.; dining-room, 24ft. by 20ft.; business-room, 16ft. by 14ft.; ante room, 12ft. by 12ft. All the rooms on this floor are 13ft. in height. On the first floor, which is 10ft. 6in. in height, there are:-Day nursery, 26ft. by 13ft.; night nursery, 13ft. by 12ft. 6in.; bathroom, 15ft. Gin. by 13ft. 6in.; bedroom, 24ft. by 21ft.; ditto, 24ft. by 21ft.; ditto, 21ft. by 15ft.; ditto, 15ft. by 14ft. ; ditto, 15ft. by 13ft.; ditto, 20ft. by 11ft. All of these are furnished with stoves. There are also two wardrobe-rooms, each measuring 15ft. by 18ft., one of which has a stove, and may be used as a bedroom, and a linen-room, 14ft. by 7ft. It may be observed that there is room and opportunity for constructing attics in the roof, an addition which can be the more easily made as the slates are laid, not on laths and battens, but on panelled wood. Now as to cost. The stone foundation wall cost £60; the builder's estimate, including sixteen stoves, doors, window-frames, door-handles, locks, and other fittings, amounted to £877; the sea freight was £204, to which something must be added for carriage by railway; a fee of £112 was paid to the architect; and to these sums must be added the cost of windowglass, slates, etc. The total cost will be something under two thousand pounds. The estimates previously obtained, for a stone house containing about the same amount of accommodation, had reached the sum of £4,600; extras, an important item in building expenses, not being included in this amount. Probably the first question which every reader will ask is this-"But will not a house of wood be especially liable to fire ?" That houses of wood generally are so liable is certain, but it is possible that proper precautions taken in their construction and management may very materially reduce the risk. A practical proof that some such result may be attained is found in comparing the Norwegian with the English charge for fire insurance. Here the rate for an ordinary risk is 18. 6d. per cent.; in Norway it is one dollar (4s. 6d.) per thousand dollars, or 2s., per cent., an excess not indicating a much greater danger, and, in fact, easily to be accounted for by the smaller amount of business transacted by the Norwegian fire offices. One fertile source of danger is removed by the total separation between the flues and the rest of the building. That common cause of fire, the beam heated by too close proximity to a fireplace, cannot occur in a house constructed as has been described above. Safety is also provided for by the substitution of stoves for the grates commonly used in this country. When we speak of "stoves," however, it must not be imagined that the Norsk stoves are of the kind called the "close stove. In the principal sitting-rooms they are so constructed as to allow the luxury, which nothing but sheer necessity will make an Englishman relinquish, of an open fire. At the same time, it is evi buildings. The church at Hittedal, to mention two only out of the many instances which might be cited, was built in 1300, and that of Fortundal is said to be 800 years old. These figures may possibly be exaggerated, but there are certainly gigantic pieces of timber in this structure whose history may be traced back for many centuries. These timbers are in the interior of the church, they are not painted, and they appear as fresh as if they had been cut down a year or two ago, ne trace of worm or dry rot being observable in them. Ana MR. F. VICARY'S NORWEGIAN HOUSE AT NORTH TAWTON, DEVONSHIRE. dent that such a house having once taken fire, would burn very rapidly, and would be completely destroyed. It would be wise to provide ready means of escape for the inmates. Another obvious precaution would be not to raise such a house to any great height, or, certainly, not to use as a sleepingroom any chamber that might be constructed above the first floor. Doubts about the durability of such a structure may be more satisfactorily disposed of. The climate of Norway may be supposed to be even more trying than ours to wooden buildings. Not only are there greater variations of temperature, but the average rainfall is much higher than ours. Yet, as a matter of fact, wooden erections of considerable antiquity are not uncommon in the country. Dwelling-houses may frequently be seen there, which, though very old, appear as sound as when they were first erected; and it is certainly true that, whether old or new, they do not need the incessant repair which in England so considerably increases the total of a householder's rent. But, whatever may be the age of Norwegian dwelling-houses, the churches afford incontestable proof of the durability of wooden To sum up. It seems that an English purchaser can import a house from Norway for something lese than half the sum which it would cost to build one here in the usual way. It appears also that this house may easily be made of handsome appearance, both within and without, wood being more susceptible than either stone or brick of an ornamentation which is at once tasteful and cheap; that it will not be more liable to fire, but pretty certain, should fire once lay hold of it, to be rapidly and totally consumed; that it will be cleaner, will need less repair, and will, in all probability, be equally durable. During the present spring various letters have appeared in the "Times" from Mr. Fulford Vicary and Mr. Frank Thicke. Since the letter last year which first called attention to the matter, the price of materials and other causes have made the cost far higher than in the North Tawton house erected by Mr. Vicary. From exceptional circumstances the erection of that house was about 125 per cent. cheaper than it could have been done in England by English workmen. The saving now cannot be more than 25 per cent., under ordinary circumstances |