ing of it, apparently from memory. He describes the blade, which seems to have been unground, as lying in a horizontal groove cut in one side of the shaft, which was 2 feet 6 inches long. At one end of the shaft were two projections supposed to serve for holding the ligatures by which the blade was attached, and nearer the hand were a number of grooves running round the haft. Neither the description nor the drawings of this and other objects found with it are such as to inspire complete confidence.
About 1822, in sinking a well at Ferry Harty, Isle of Sheppey,[1] there were found, according to newspaper reports, the remains of a hut, two skeletons, and "flints and hard stones, apparently intended for axes and cutting implements, with handles of wood quite complete and in good preservation." Nothing farther seems to be known of this discovery.
At Ervie,[2] near Glenluce, Wigtownshire, a celt of indurated clay-stone in form like Fig. 77 (8 inches) was found, which shows a band of dark colour about 112 inch wide and about 2 inches from the butt-end, crossing it at an angle of about 20°. This band probably shows the position of the haft in which the blade was fixed. Another celt from Glenshee, Forfarshire, likewise in the Edinburgh Museum, shows a fainter mark of the kind. On a third from Dolphinton,[3] Lanarkshire, the mark is very distinct and at a right angle to the axis of the blade. Montelius[4] mentions a Swedish specimen, and A. de Mortillet[5] a French one of flint similarly marked.
In the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy[6] is a drawing of a celt in its handle (which is apparently of pine) found in the county
Fig. 93.—Monaghan.
of Monaghan. This handle was 1312 inches long, and more clumsy at the socketed end than that from Solway Moss. The woodcut given by Sir W. Wilde is here, by permission, reproduced as Fig. 93.
Another nearly similar specimen was discovered near Cooks-
