Fig. 246.—Moira. ½ ———— Fig. 247.—Fresné la Mère. ½
An instrument of much the same character (4 inches) was found, with a bronze sword, spear-heads, &c., in the Island of Skye, and is now in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. As Professor Daniel Wilson[740] observes, “in general appearance it resembles a bent spear-head, but it has a raised central ridge on the inside, while it is nearly plain and smooth on the outer side.—The most probable use for which it has been designed would seem to be for scraping out the interior of canoes and other large vessels made from the trunk of the oak.” It is shown as Fig. 248. Another instrument of the same kind (4½ inches), found at Wester Ord, Invergordon, Ross-shire, is engraved in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,[741] and is here by their permission reproduced as Fig. 249.
Fig. 248.—Skye. ½ ———— Fig. 249.—Wester Ord. ½
It seems by no means improbable that such instruments may have been mistaken for bent spear-heads, and that they are not quite so rare as would at present appear.
Two specimens of the socketed form have been found in the Lake settlement of the Eaux Vives, near Geneva, and are now in the museum of that town. Another, with a tang, is in the collection of M. Forel, of Morges, and was found among the pile-dwellings near that place.
Fig. 250.—Reach Fen. ½ — Fig. 251.—Reach Fen. ½
A fragment of what appears to have been one of these curved knives, but with a solid handle, and not a socket, was found with gouges and various fragments at Hounslow, and is now in the British Museum.