Splinter

“ There would, however, be the mark of the blow on one face only of such a splinter, whereas in a perfectly artificial flake the traces of the blow by which each facet was produced would be discernible. On the sea-shore, natural splinters of flint, resulting from the blow of one wave-borne pebble on another, may occasionally be found, some of them having a kind of secondary working at the edges, the result of attrition among the pebbles on the shore. ”

“ I was alone among arms and legs appearing for a second and disappearing. I was running. . . .
I dashed to the entrance of a house to stop to catch my breath, my back close to the door—and suddenly, like a splinter borne by the wind, a human being was thrown toward me.
“All the while I . . . I have been following you. I do not want . . . do you see? I do not want . . . I am ready to . . .”
Small round hands on my sleeves, round dark blue eyes—it was O-90. She just slipped along my body like a unif which, its hanger broken, slips along the wall to fall upon the floor. ”

“ If a part remains in the flesh, or if the foreign body is a needle that cannot be found or removed at once, the continuous application of a hot flaxseed or other poultice will lead to the formation of "matter," with which the splinter or needle will often escape after a few days. Splinters finding their way under the nail may be removed by scraping the nail very thin over the splinter and splitting it with a sharp knife down to the point where the end of the splinter can be grasped. ”

“ Perhaps the longer finer ones were employed in the manufacture of basketry, while the sharpened splinters served best as hide perforators.
Cut Bone
There is one fragmentary bone about 7 inches long, that was evidently left over from the production of a splinter awl. It illustrates the technique of bone cutting that was probably employed for producing tools. ”

“ By proper treatment and under favorable circumstances, he asserts, such splinters become impacted in callus, and in time unite with the other fragments of the bone, and in this manner a cure is completed without operative interference. It is a matter, however, of frequent observation that splinters which have thus become impacted in callus lead to mischief in various ways, or are subsequently discharged as if they were so many foreign bodies, while the removal of the jagged ends of the broken bone seems to be a valuable means of preventing irritation, and thus of favoring union between them ”

“ The fact is, that wherever flint is used as a material from which implements are fashioned, many of the flakes or splinters arising from the chipping of the flint, are certain to present sharp points or cutting edges, which by a race of men living principally by the chase are equally certain to be regarded as fitting points for their darts or arrows, or as useful for cutting purposes; they are so readily formed, and are so well adapted for such uses without any further fashioning, that they have been employed in all ages just as struck from off the flint. ”

“ Some of the splinters are derived from such large and strong bones that it is questionable whether even the largest carnivora could have produced them, and are presumed to be remnants of human feasts, in which the bones were crushed to obtain the marrow. ”

“ The fishes are also employed for the same purpose on any yard, which happens to be sprung or fractured. Thus their form, application, and utility are exactly like those of the splinters applied to a broken limb in surgery. ”

“ Those flakes of flint, my child, were split off by men; even your young eyes ought to be able to see that. And here are other pieces of flint—pear-shaped, but flattened, sharp at one end and left rounded at the other, which look like spear-heads, or arrow-heads, or pointed axes, or pointed hatchets—even your young eyes can see that these must have been made by man. And they are, I may tell you, just like the tools of flint, or of obsidian, which is volcanic glass, and which savages use still where they have not iron. ”

“ And there, right in the centre of the glowing picture, lay the two brigantines—we with our bulwarks torn and splintered to pieces, our sails riddled with shot-holes, our rigging badly cut up, and our decks scored with shot-marks and littered with dead and wounded men; while the Guerrilla was an even more melancholy wreck than ourselves, as she lay heaving and rolling sluggishly, with her covering-boards awash and the sea sweeping her decks from stem to taffrail at every plunge, and the wreck of her foremast towing under her bows. ”

“ To these people flint implements appear to be altogether of secondary importance; although the flints are very numerous, they are not finished with any of the perfection of the Solutrean technique; the laurel-leaf spear head and shouldered dart head have disappeared entirely, but a great variety of smaller graving and chasing forms are employed for fashioning the implements of bone and horn. What a contrast to the beautiful flints so finely retouched and of such carefully selected materials, found in the very same stations in middle and upper Solutrean layers! ”

“ Winifred fear him!—fear him! She, who never feared the face of clay! There is only one explanation, and yet that is too wildly improbable!
I never saw any one more unlikely to inspire an affection. Flint by name and Flint by nature,—cold and hard as rock itself; and for a girl like [Pg 183] Winifred! It never could be!—and yet, I confess, I don't know what to think.
After they had talked together for some time, he swung himself down the bank, pushed off the dory, and we saw him pulling rapidly into the middle of the bay.
"Well, if that doesn't beat the Dutch!" said Dr. Cricket. ”

“ He felt that he had appeared like a fool; and it must be a generous soul which can forgive one who has been both cause and witness of such humiliation. To conquer his irritation, Flint proceeded to take his injured rod to pieces, and repack it gloomily in its bag of green felt. When he looked up again, all petty annoyances faded out of his mind, for there ahead of him, behind the little patch of pines, lay the great cool, cobalt stretch of ocean, unfathomably deep, unutterably blue.
The young man felt a vague awe and exaltation tugging at his heart. ”

“ Flints.--If we may rely on a well-known passage in Virgil, concerning Æneas and his comrades, fire was sometimes made in ancient days by striking together two flints, but I confess myself wholly unable to light tinder with flints alone, and I am equally at a loss to understand what were the "dry leaves" that they are said in the same passage to have used for tinder. Neither can I obtain fire except with a flint and steel, or, at least, hardened iron; a flint and ordinary iron will not give an available spark. ”

“ With skill and experience a mass of flint can be worked to any simple shape by well directed strokes, and further trimming can be effected with pressure by a pointed stone in a direction slightly across the edge of the weapon. The purest flints have the most perfect conchoidal fracture, and prehistoric man is known to have quarried or mined certain bands of flint which were specially suitable for his purposes.
Silica forms nearly the whole substance of flint ”

“ Frequently flints are found in all stages of formation: siliceous chalk with the corroded remains of sponge spicules may be found in the interior, black flint blotched with grey forming the mass of the nodule, while the exterior is completed by a thin layer of white porous flint. This layer must not be confused with the white layer which is frequently met with on the surface of weathered flints, which is due to a subsequent solution of some of the silica, so that by a process of unbuilding, the flint is brought back to the incompleted flint in its second stage. ”

“ He caught the half-paralyzed arm of Flint and dragged him into the street.
"But," stammered the horrified Flint, as he was borne along, "what does it all. mean? What made that man attack me?"
"I reckon it was a case of shooting on sight, Mr. Fowler; but he missed it by not waiting to see if you were armed. It wasn't the square thing, and you're all right with the crowd now, whatever he might have had agin you."
"But," protested the unhappy Flint, "I never laid eyes on the man before, and my name isn't Fowler."
Flynn halted, and dragged him in a doorway. "Who the devil are you?" ”

“ When I come back you'll probably have mandibles, and you'll greet me with a nip, in pure Bugese."
"Good-by," said John Flint, lifting his head. Then, with unwonted feeling: "I'm horrible sorry you've got to go—I'll miss you something fierce. You've been very kind—thank you."
"Mind you take care of the Padre," said the boy, waiving the thanks with a smile. "Don't let him work too hard."
"Who, me?" Flint's voice took the knife-edge of sarcasm. "Oh, sure! It don't need but one leg to keep up with a gent trying to run a thirty-six hour a day job with one-man power, does it? ”

“ Flint forgetting his usual caution took the unruly savage by the shoulders and thrust him out of the lodge.
In a few moments the enraged Indian returned accompanied by another, when the two attacked the white man with knives and tomahawks.
Flint saw no way but to defend himself single-handed as he was, against two infuriated savages, and to do to if possible without killing either.
This he soon discovered was impossible. The only weapon he had at command was a hunting knife, and he had two strong men to contend against. ”

“ Ignoring his companion, or dreading perhaps to let loose the floods of his garrulity by making any gap in the dam of silence, Flint sat idly inspecting his fishing-tackle, shutting it up, then drawing it out, and finally topping it with the last, light, slender tip, quivering like the outmost delicate twig of an aspen as he shook it over the side of the carryall. In fancy, he saw it bending beneath the weight of a black bass such as haunted the translucent depths of a fresh [Pg 13] water pond a mile or two away. ”

“ Freshly broken flint presents a peculiar dull and raw surface, entirely unlike the glossy, varnished appearance of objects which have undergone a long exposure to atmospheric influences, and have been subjected to chemical changes and the friction of sand and water. These causes produce the characteristic "patina," which distinguishes genuine flint implements, and which varies greatly according to the conditions under which the objects have remained. ”

“ He sought out the old chief accordingly, and warned him of his danger.
Fire Cloud was greatly enraged to think that he should be suspected carrying off the young woman.
"He hated her father," he said, "for he was a cheat, and had a crooked tongue. But the paleface maiden was his friend, and for her sake he would find her if she was among his people, and would restore her to her friends."
"If you enter the city of the palefaces, they will hang you up like a dog without listening to anything you have to say in your defence," said Flint. ”

“ Flint, jailer in The Deserter, a musical drama by Dibdin (1770) .
Flint (Sir Clement) , a very kind-hearted, generous old bachelor, who “trusts no one,” and though he professes his undoubted belief to be “that self is the predominant principle of the human mind,” is never so happy as when doing an unselfish and generous act. He settles £2000 a year on the young Lord Gayville, his nephew, that he may marry Miss Alton, the lady of his choice; and says, “To reward the deserving, and make those we love happy, is self-interest in the extreme.”—General Burgoyne, The Heiress (1781) . ”

“ They were always in and out, now with a cocoon, now an imago, now a larva, and then again to see how those they had already brought were getting along.
The lame man was an unrivaled listener—a circumstance which endeared him to youthful Laurence, in whom thoughts and the urge to express these thoughts in words rose like sap. This fresh and untainted confidence, poured out so naïvely, taught John Flint more than any words or prayers of mine could have done. ”

“ The flints resembling in form various animals, birds, and other objects, must I think be regarded as the effect of accidental concretion and of the peculiar colouring and fracture of flint, rather than as designedly fashioned. This is, however, a question into which I need not enter, as it in no way affects that now before us. Suffice it that there exists an abundance of implements found in the drift which are evidently the work of the hand of man, and that their formation cannot possibly be regarded as the effect of accident or the result of natural causes. ”

“ Here the party halted, and the captain shouted at the top of his voice:
"What ho! there, Lightfoot, you she devil, why don't you light up!"
This rude summons was repeated several times before it received any answer.
At length an answer came in what was evidently a female voice, and from one who was in no very good humor: "Oh, don't you get into a passion now. How you s'pose I know you was coming back so soon."
"Didn't I tell you I'd be back to-day!" angrily asked Flint.
"Well, what if you did," replied the voice. "Do you always come when you says you will?" ”

“ Flint is invariably selected, and for months the children keep bringing "lovely sharp flints," but there is much careful observation, observation which has a motive. "I would put a stone in a stick and chuck it at them" is followed by much experiment at fixing. String is of course taboo, but bass is allowed because it grows, also strips of skin. We very often get the suggestion "they might find a stone with a hole in it," which leads to renewed searching and to the endeavour to make holes. To make a hole in flint is beyond us, but in a softer stone it can be done. ”

“ It delighted her to find and bring the proper food-plants for his cages. And she being one of those who sing while they work, you might hear her caroling like a lark, flitting about the old garden with her red setter Kerry at her heels.
Laurence no longer read aloud to him, but instead gave Flint such books as he could find covering his particular study, and these were devoured and pored over, and more begged for. Flint would go without new clothes, neat as he was, and without tobacco, much as he liked to smoke,—to buy books upon lepidoptera. ”