stone implements did not survive in some parts of the country to a far more recent date than would at first sight appear probable. I have, however, remarked on this subject elsewhere.[1] Sir Arthur Mitchell's book, "The Past in the Present," may also be consulted.
The methods in which these instruments were used and mounted must to some extent have varied in accordance with the purposes to which they were applied. In describing the forms, I have pointed out that in some cases they were used as axes or hatchets, and in other cases as adzes, and that there are some celts which not improbably were used in the hand without any handle at all, or else were mounted in short handles, and used after the manner of chisels or knives.
The instances of their being found in this country still attached to their handles are rare. In the case of the celt found near Tranmere,[2] Cheshire, and now in the Mayer Museum at Liverpool, "the greater part of the wood had perished, but enough remained to show that the handle had passed in a slightly diagonal direction towards the upper end of the stone." In the Christy Collection is a large felstone celt 1214 inches long and 314 inches broad, of the same section as Fig. 43, slightly flattened at the sides, on the face of which the mark of the handle is still visible, crossing it obliquely near the middle. This specimen was found at Pentney, Norfolk. Similar marks may not improbably be observed on other specimens, like that from Drumour already mentioned at page 119.
In the Solway Moss, near Longtown, a hafted hatchet was found by a labourer digging peat, at the depth of rather more
Fig. 91 .—Solway Moss.
than six feet, but the handle appears to have been broken, even at the time when the sketch was made from which the woodcut
