This form of instrument occurs but rarely in Scotland; but what appears to be a chisel of this kind is engraved by Wilson.[582] His figure is, however, a mere diagram, without any scale attached, and the instrument is described as an axe blade with a cross limb, or as a “spiked axe.” Whatever its character, the original of the figure is said to have been found with other bronze relics at Strachur, Argyleshire.
An example of a chisel of elongated form is in the Antiquarian Museum[583] at Edinburgh, but it is uncertain in what part of Scotland it was found. By the kindness of the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland it is shown as Fig. 198.
Fig. 198.—Scotland. ½ ——— Fig. 199.—Ireland. ½
In Ireland they are much more common. There are thirteen specimens in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, as catalogued by the late Sir William Wilde,[584] varying in length from 2½ to 6¼ inches. Some of these Irish chisels, which approximate to flat celts in character, have already been described in Chapter III.
That which Wilde has given as his Fig. 395 is almost identical in form with the chisel from Ireland in my own collection which is here engraved as Fig. 199, though considerably longer altogether, and somewhat longer proportionally in the tang.
I have another example from Belaghey, County Antrim, which is 6⅜ inches long, and much stouter in the tang and in the neck of the blade than that here figured. It is only 1⅜ inches wide at the edge.
Among those in the museum at Dublin is one which is decorated with knobs round the collar. Two others are figured in “Horæ Ferales.”[585] In the British Museum is one (4⅝ inches) with a well-marked collar. Another, with the square tang broken off, has a loop at the side of the round part of the blade, which is 2¼ inches long. This curious specimen was found near Burrisokane, county Tipperary.