6;o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



The Solutrian flakes are not only remarkably thin, but 

 minutely and elaborately dressed on both sides. This com- 

 bination of characters suggests the introduction of some new 

 method of flaking. Previously produced by blows, it would 

 now seem to have been effected by pressure. It is difficult 

 otherwise to understand how such delicate laminae could have 

 received their finished form. Travellers have from time to 

 time brought home accounts of the employment of this method 

 by existing races ; thus Krause l in describing the Fuegians, 

 who are very expert in the dressing of flint, remarks that the 

 fine flaking or retouches are made by pressure skilfully applied 

 by means of a piece of bone — an old harpoon deprived of its 

 point often serving this purpose. The Eskimos of Alaska, 

 who employ the same process, make use of a piece of reindeer's 

 horn mounted in a handle of fossil ivory. 



The outlines of the Solutrian flakes, though simple, are often 

 extremely elegant. Some forms are especially characteristic, 

 such as the laurel-leaf point (pointe en feuille de lauricr), the 

 willow-leaf, and the shouldered point {point a cran). These are 

 not always found associated in the same Solutrian deposit, and 

 are sometimes absent altogether, even when other indications 

 point to a Solutrian age. 



It need scarcely be added that the Solutrian flint implements 

 are far from maintaining a uniform level of excellence. Not 

 only did the workmen differ in skill, but the primitive hunter 

 was accustomed to adapt means to ends. He was not the man 

 to " cut rocks with a razor," and when a flake was required at 

 once for some simple operation, it would be made on the spot, 

 ad hoc, and thrown away when it had served its purpose. 

 There seems to have been a kind of trade in the best imple- 

 ments ; this at least is suggested by the discovery of caches of 

 laurel-leaf and shouldered points, as at a locality near Volgu 

 (Saone et Loire), which afforded a collection of fine examples 

 made from a kind of flint not found in the neighbourhood. 2 



A second advance in the palaeolithic industry is marked by 

 the introduction of a new material. A use had been found for 

 bone, which, while tougher and less brittle than flint, is capable 

 of taking a fine point, and to obtain this recourse might be made 

 to the operation of grinding. From the grinding of bone to 



1 E. Krause, Zeits.f. EtJm. 1903, xxxv. p. 537. 



2 Chabas, Les Silex de Volgu, C/ia/on, 1874. 



