An gaidheal - National Library of Scotland

—L24 THE GAEL. Tune, 187a.several cart loads of flint clipi)ings,manifestly broken ofl' in the manufactureof flint instruments, for wehave been able to recover severalarrow heads, two roughly finishedchisels, and a hammer head of cxiriousshape, with a hole in the centre,which must have cost the maker nosmall amount of time and trouble inthe manipulation. What rendersthis "find" more interesting, is thefact that the material must have beenbrought to the place of manufacturefrom a considerable distance, flintbeing of rare occurrence anywhere inNether-Lochaber. Underlying sucha depth of solid moss and drift, sucha discovery necessai'ily carries us backto a race of men who lived in a veryremote period indeed; how remote,even geology is as yet unable absolutelyto say. We were unfortunatelyfrom home at the time thediscovery was made, and were thusprevented from examining the wholein nitu. This much, however, iscertain, that under a diluvial bed ofdrift, gravel, and sand, of upwardsof two feet in thickness, underlying athickness of at least six feet of solidmoss, a flint instrument manufactoryis found, the work of a people wholived before the deposit of that driftand the growth of that moss. Howmany thousands and thousands ofyears ago lived that flint workingrace, who, in view of the extremeslowness of geological changes, cansay] We knoM- that in the celebratedcase of the discovery of flintweapons at Abbeville and elsewherein France, the remains of extinctspecies of elei)hant, rhinoceros, andother mammals were found at animmense depth in the drift alongsideof flint insti-uments unquestionablyfashioned by human hands. Whetherour Ballachulish discovery is to beheld as a connecting link with aiifople of iin antiquity as remote asthose of Abbeville, it would be rashpositively to assert; but the flintworkers, some remains of whoselabours have, as we have stated, beenrecently brought to light in oiu*neighbourhood, must have lived ata period when the face of the countrywas geologically very different fromwhat it is now; and rememberinghow slowly as a rule geologicalchanges are brought about, we shallprobably be still within the mark ifa25proximately we fix the ei'a of theearliest flint workers at somethinglike ten thousand years ago, and inthe case of Abbeville continentalarch?eologists have had no hesitationin suggesting a still remoter antiquity.THE HIGHLANDER.We cordially welcome The Hiyhlandei\the first three numbers ofwhich ha-v-e made their appearance.Its general get up, and the evidencesof care and taste disi^layed in theselection of its varied contents, aswell as the healthful vigour of itseditorials, aiigiir well for its futuresuccess. Its Gaelic department continuesto retain its interest ; and notthe least useful feature is "Notes ofInterrogation," with their answers,which are calculated to elicit a gi-eatamount of inlbrmation regardingCeltic and other lore which wouldotherwise lie buried in oblivion orslumbering only in the memory ofsome old gossip, and in danger, likemuch of our unwritten literature, ofbeing altogether lost. We cannotbut think that the conductors of thisnew ally have been unfortunate intheir selection of a Gaelic titleArd-alhannach, though it was adoptedin defei'ence to ourselves. Why doit by translation at alii Ratherstrike out for a new name that conveysthe idea without adhering quite