Nearly all the rapier-shaped blades which have still to be noticed may be regarded as probably those of swords rather than of daggers. That shown in Fig. 317 is in my own collection, and was found near Londonderry. The method of attachment to the hilt by two rivets fitting into notches at the sides of the base of the blade is the same as in some of the shorter weapons already mentioned. Another (19 inches), found at Killeshandra,[950] Co. Cavan, has similar notches at the sides, but the base is somewhat differently shaped. Many of these rapier-shaped blades have been found in Ireland, and Canon Greenwell has one (27¼ inches) which was bought in Scotland, and probably found in that country. A blade (14 inches) found in the Loire, and now in the Nantes Museum, has side notches of nearly the same character as those in Fig. 317. The finest example of the rapier kind ever found in Ireland is that shown in Fig. 318, which by the kindness of the Royal Irish Academy I here reproduce from Sir W. Wilde’s Catalogue. It is no less than 30¼ inches long, and is only ⅝ inch in width at the centre of the blade, which has a strong midrib. It was found in a bog at Lissane, Co. Derry. I have a blade, found at Noailles, near Beauvais, Oise, France, identical in form and character, but only 23¼ inches long. Were it not that the rivets are wanting, Fig. 318 might have been taken from the French instead of the Irish specimen. Another narrow blade, with a heavy rounded midrib (22⅝ inches long and 1¾ inch broad at the base), was found in a bog at Galbally, Co. Tyrone, and had at the time of its discovery the original hilt attached. There also appear to have been some remains of a scabbard, but this is uncertain. The hilt has been engraved in the _Proceedings of the Royal Historical and Archæological Society of Ireland_,[951] and is here by their kindness reproduced as Fig. 319. Mr. Wakeman, of Enniskillen, in his interesting account of the discovery, describes the material of which the hilt is formed as bone, or rather whalebone. Both blade and haft are, however, now in my own collection, and I think there can be no doubt that the material of the hilt is in reality a dark-coloured ox-horn. On some Danish blades I have seen the fibrous texture of this substance still shown by the oxide or salt of the metal, forming as it were a cast of its surface, which has outlasted the horn against which it was originally formed. There are no traces of the rivets in the Galbally hilt, so that probably pins of hard wood served to secure it to the blade. Some Scandinavian daggers have been found with their handles of horn still attached. One from a barrow in Hasslöf,[952] South Halland, Sweden, had its leather sheath with a long rectangular end of bronze still preserved. The length of the sheath is about twice that of the blade of the dagger. The bronze hilts for the long rapier-like blades are rare, but not unknown.