The specimens that I have engraved as Figs. 262 and 263, are in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of London. They are formed of thin laminæ of what is said to be madreporite, and are sharp all round.[1552] They were found with fourteen others at the depth of six feet in a peat-moss, the whole of them being arranged in a horizontal line, and overlapping each other like slates upon the roof of a house. There are several specimens formed of felspathic rocks, and from various localities in Shetland, preserved in the British Museum. A note attached to one of them states that twelve were found in Easterskild, in the parish of Sandsting. An engraving of one of them is given in the “Horæ Ferales.”[1553] I possess several; one of porphyritic stone, oval, 8 inches long, is polished all over both faces, one side is sharp and the other rounded. In the National Museum at Edinburgh[1554] are other examples, also from Shetland. Several have been figured.[1555] Some have a kind of haft.[1556] They occasionally have a hole for suspension.[1557] Sir Daniel Wilson[1558] states that a considerable number of implements, mostly of the same class, were found under the clay in the ancient mosses of |347| Blairdrummond and Meiklewood, but in this he was in error. There are some fine specimens from Shetland in the Ethnological Museum at Copenhagen. Mr. J. W. Cursiter, of Kirkwall, has fine examples of such knives from Shetland. One in his collection is 8 inches long and 5 3∕4 inches broad, being in form much like Fig. 262. [Illustration: Fig. 263.—Walls, Shetland. 1∕2] There can be little doubt of these implements having been cutting tools for holding in the hand, though they have been described by Dr. Hibbert and Mr. Bryden[1559] in “The Statistical Account of the Shetland Isles” as double or single-edged battle-axes. They appear, however, as Mr. Albert Way[1560] has pointed out, to be too thin and fragile for any warlike purpose. Those with the cutting edge all round were probably provided with a sort of handle along one side, like the flensing-knife from Icy Cape in the possession of Sir Edward Belcher, of which mention has already been made. This is a flat thin blade, about 5 inches long, and of subquadrangular form. It is sharp at the edge, but has a guard or handle along the opposite side, made of split twigs attached by resinous gum. In some Eskimo knives of the same kind in the Christy Collection and in the Ethnological Museum at Copenhagen the |348| wooden back is tied on by a cord which passes through a hole in the blade. It is possible that the “Picts’ knives” may in some cases have been used, like those of the Eskimos, for removing the blubber from whales.