62 OKTOryAL AETICLES. 



weapon into the handle, and which is continued to the base of the 

 horn. One of the flint implements above alluded to is a knife 

 manufactured with particular care, and appearing never to have 

 been used. 



One of the most curious of the relics discovered in this exploration 

 is the canine tooth of a young Great Cave Jiear (JJrsiis s^elceus). 

 Tlie cro'5\"n has been entirely deprived of enamel, afterwards thinned on 

 the two sides, and a groove running along the concave border 

 simulates a sort of buccal commissure, or the opening of a bird's beak ; 

 an oblong fossette visible above and a little behind this, in the 

 situation that would have been occupied by the eve, and surmounted 

 by a superciliary line, completed an ill-defined resemblance to some 

 animal fonn, perhaps a bird's head. The maker, or, as one might say, 

 the artist, who certaijily had at his disposal large canines of the same 

 species of Bear, chose that of a young individual, no doubt because 

 the still existing pulp cavity enabled him to complete the perforation 

 with less trouble. The tooth, in fact, is perforated ft-om end to end, 

 so as to admit of its being suspended by some means. It was foimd 

 very near the entrance of the cave, and exactly at the spot where 

 Bonnemaison, after the removal of the stone slab, had subsequently 

 collected the rubbish from the interior. It had probably been 

 originally interred with one of the bodies as a token of afiection, or 

 as an amulet, and was overlooked when all the human remains were 

 removed byM. Amiel.* 



It has been remarked that some of the flint implements must 

 have been manufactured on the spot. The same may be said of some 

 articles in Eeindeer horn ; for we collected, partly among the ashes, 

 partly in the superjacent layer of rubbish, the remains of the horns 

 of that animal, from which the antlers and other portions, likely to 

 be made useful as implements, had been removed. 



The experience acquired by this primitive people had even thus 

 eariy taught them that the shed horns, which at the present day 

 are preferred by cutlers, are better nourished and more compact 

 than those taken in the growing state from the head of the liring 

 animal. A single horn of a yoimg indi^ idual was found, which had 

 been cut off immediately after the death of the animal, doubtless 

 that its soHtaiy point might be used. It was still attached by the 

 base to the frontal bone, and at and below the seat of fracture the 

 striped lines of numerous cuts made with the blunt edge of a flint 

 tool may readily be perceived. 



^ijnong the asihes we also found the disjointed laminae of the 

 molars of the Elephant (S. primigenius). In these laminae, from which 

 the enamel is detached, the ivory appears to have been very much al- 

 tered by the action of fii'e. It is impossible to sui-mise the purpose for 



* In the sepulchres of the ancient Livonians, we are infonncd bv M. Frederick 

 Troyon, that pierced teeth of the Bear are found, which had been worn no doubt 

 as charms or amulets. 



