IN THE THAMES BASIN. 



103 



used as an axe. This method of hafting is employed among 

 certain existing savages. 



Fig. 6 represents an exceptionally finely-pointed specimen 

 It may either have been used as a javelin-head, or else as an axe- 

 head, in which case the point would have been wedged into 

 a hole in the piece of wood forming the handle. 



Fig. 7 shews a beautiful implement of rare workmanship 

 and unusual form. 



Another characteristic, though comparatively rare, type of 

 axe-head is discoidal in shape, the oval periphery presenting an 



FIG. 7. — TONGUED-SHAPED IMPLEMENT fiom Swanscombe. 

 Drawn by J. P. Johnson. Natural size. 



acute edge. Semi-circular forms also occur. Allen Brown 

 describes one from the low-level valley drift as '' a very neatly 

 made axe-head much more advanced in form as well as in work- 

 manship than any instrument of that kind from the older drift of 

 the higher levels which has come under my notice. The blade 

 is skilfully chipped all over and the front is worked into a sharp 

 :utting edge." 



Even the actual land surfaces on which the Palaeolithic 

 people manufactured their implements have been preserved here 

 and there, buried under varying thickness of drift. So well 

 defined are these old surfaces that in some instances the cracks 



5 J. Allen Brown, "Working Sites and Inhabited Land-Surfaces of the Palaeolithic 

 Period." Trans. Middlesex Nat. Hist. Soc. (1S89). 



