Iron knives are occasionally found with interments. Some remarkable instances of this have been recently brought to light near Plymouth, and others again at Wetton and other places. The knives are of the form engraved on fig. 305. They appear to have had wooden handles, which, of course, except small traces of texture, have entirely decayed away. Another knife, although not actually found with an interment, shows the form so well that it is here engraved. It was nine and a half inches long, of peculiar shape, still retaining its handle of stag’s horn, rubbed or worn smooth; the good preservation of which we may attribute to having been imbedded in the fire-hardened earth, and sufficiently deep to secure it from injury by the fire. With the knives in the Plymouth cemetery were found portions of scissors, of the form of the sheep-shears of the present day, and these have also been found in other localities. They were of iron, and several fragments of other implements of the same material were at the same time discovered. [Illustration: Fig. 305.] [Illustration: Fig. 306.] Of FIBULÆ an almost endless variety in form, in size, and in material has at one time or other been exhumed. They are, however, but very occasionally found with interments. The most usual form, perhaps, is that which is commonly called harp-shaped, or bowed, and this is of such extreme variety that scarcely two examples out of the hundreds that are known are precisely alike. Several have a cross bar at the top, and are hence called “cruciform” (figs. 307, 310 to 312, and 315). Others have coiled springs of wire at the top, variously fashioned. Some of these are extremely complicated and ingenious, as will be seen by the engraved examples. The more simple of the twisted springs, a coiled spring only, formed by the end of the bow being attenuated into the pin, is known as the “rat-trap spring,” from its coiled resemblance to the spring used in those “vermin killers.” Examples to show this form are here given (figs. 313, 314, 316, and 317). This form of fibula is generally known as the “dolphin” shape. Occasionally wire only, twisted in like manner as recently reproduced for skeleton shawl pins, are found. Sometimes the fibula really assumed the form of an animal, a bird or a serpent, with an inflated body. One of this character is engraved on fig. 318. It is of one continuous piece of bronze, and the pin, having a coiled spring, answers to the tail of the serpent, and hooks into a projection on the neck. [Illustration: Fig. 307.] [Illustration: Fig. 308.] [Illustration: Fig. 309.] [Illustration: Fig. 310.] [Illustration: Fig. 311.] [Illustration: Fig. 312.] [Illustration: Fig. 313.] [Illustration: Fig. 314.] [Illustration: Fig. 315.] [Illustration: Fig. 316.] [Illustration: Fig. 317.] [Illustration: Fig. 318.]