Flakes and splinters of silicious stone, whether flint, jasper, chert, iron-stone, quartzite, or obsidian, are to be found in almost all known countries, and belong to all ages. They are in fact |285| the most catholic of all stone implements, and have been in use “semper, ubique, et ab omnibus.” Whether we look in our old River-gravels of the age of the mammoth, in our old cave-deposits, our ancient encampments, or our modern gun-flint manufactories, |286| there is the inevitable flake. And it is almost universally the same in other countries—in Greenland or South Africa, on the field of Marathon or in the backwoods of Australia, among the sands of Arabia[1267] or on the plains of America,—wherever such flakes and splinters are sought for, they are almost sure to be found, either in use among the savage occupants of the country at the present day, or among civilized nations, left in the soil as memorials of their more or less remote barbarian ancestors. * * * * * Flint flakes are found in great abundance in Ireland, especially in Ulster, where the raw material occurs in the chalk. At Toome Bridge, on the shores of Lough Neagh, many thousands have been found, and they occur in abundance in the valley of the Bann,[1268] and in slightly raised beaches along the shores of Belfast Lough. They are rarely more than 4 or 5 inches in length; and symmetrical, flat, parallel flakes are extremely rare. Many pointed flakes have been slightly trimmed[1269] at the butt-end, and converted into a sort of lance-head without further preparation. Such flakes may have pointed fishing-spears. They are occasionally formed of Lydian stone. In Scandinavia, the art of flaking flint attained to great perfection, and flat or ridged symmetrical flakes, as much as 6 inches long, and not more than 3∕4-inch wide, are by no means uncommon. Occasionally they are no less than 13 inches long.[1270] Two in the Museum at Copenhagen[1271] (9 inches) fit the one on the other. The ridge is sometimes formed by cross-chipping. The bulk of the flakes from the kjökken-möddings are of a rude character, though very many show traces of use. In Germany, long flakes of flint are rare, but one about 6 1∕2 inches long, found in Rhenish-Hesse, is engraved by Lindenschmit.[1272] In some parts of France they are extremely plentiful, especially on and around the sites of ancient flint _ateliers_. Some flakes, like those produced at Pressigny, were of great length. One not less than 13 1∕4 inches long, and not more than 1 1∕2 inches broad at the butt, found at Pauilhac, in the Valley of the Gers, has been figured in the _Revue de Gascogne_.[1273] A flake from Gergovia, 9 inches long, is in the Museum at Clermont Ferrand. One 8 3∕4 inches long was found in the Camp de Catenoy[1274] (Oise). Long flakes found in France have been engraved by numerous authors,[1275] and some from Belgium by Le Hon.[1276]