PREHISTORIC ART. 



3C3 



envelop it at its j?reatest diameter, and herein lies tlie first difficnlty. 

 If the sharpened implement be insufficiently inserted it will drop out; 

 if only partially inserted a few hard blows would s[)lit the handle; if 

 it be inserted too far the same blow will drive it through. 



The particular or special use of the Chelleen implement is unknown, 

 though it may easily be surmised. The wise men of Europe have made 

 many guesses and suppositions, but beyond the suggestion of a cutting 

 or digging implement 

 adapting itself to varying 

 daily needs of the abo- 

 riginal man, all these are 

 naught but speculation. 

 Many of the implements 

 bear undoubted traces of 

 use on their cutting edges. 

 Sir John Evans, in his 

 latest work, reverts to his 

 first and original opinion, 

 that " it is nearly useless 

 to speculate as to the pur- 

 jioses to which they were 

 applied." Sir John Lub- 

 bock says: 



Ahnost as well miglit we ask 

 to what would they not be 

 api)lied. Infinite as are our 

 instruments, who would at- 

 tempt, even at present, to say 

 what was the use of a knife? 

 But the primitive savage had 

 no such choice of tools. We 

 see l)efore us, perhaps, the whole coutents of his workshop, and with these weapons, 

 rude as they seem to us, he may have cut down trees, scooped them out into canoes, 

 grubbed up roots, killed animals and enemies, cut up his food, made holes in winter 

 through the ice, prepared firewood, etc. 



Attention is called to the relation of width to thickness of the speci- 

 mens shown, especially in fig. 4, because this is a characteristic of 

 Paleolithic types, and one of the recognizable differences between 

 Chelleen and all other implements. This specimen is 3/,, inches in 

 width and If inches in thickness — or the thickness is 53 per cent of the 

 width. The average Solutreen and ISTeolithic leaf-shaped implements 

 of this width are about three-fourths of an inch, or 22 per cent of the 

 width. 



The flint of which these implements are made has, in many specimens, 

 passed, since their manufacture, through certain chemical and phj'sical 

 changes on the surface. Some show a certain brilliancy, in some the 

 color has changed to red or yellow, and so on through the scale to 

 chalky white. This change, called patina, is produced by contact with 



Fig. 4. 



PALEOLITHIC CHELLEEN IMPLEMENT OF CHIPPED FLINT. 



Loire Valley, central France. 



Cat. No. 36121, U.S.N. M. k, natural size. 



