102 Spencer and Walcott : 



and oroovings, just as clearly produced by the opposite tooth 

 of the same ja^v.■' 



Mr. De Vis (5) also deals with the bone-cutting capacity of 

 Thi/Iacoleo in connection with the cuts on what is usually 

 known as the " Buninyong Bone.'' 



We haye already referred to man as a possible agent in 

 shaping the bones. That a good reason for breaking the bones 

 might be found in his desire to obtain the marrow from them 

 is apparent, and many bones in the collection favour this yiew, 

 but the process is such a simple one that it is unlikely a sharp 

 edged cutting implement, presumably made of stone, would be 

 eniployed. Even if it were brought into requisition the force 

 sufficient to produce cuts of the kind under consideration by 

 one or two heavy blows with a stone axe, having what would 

 be to us a blunt edge, would, almost certainly, simply smash 

 the bone, leaving the only evidence of the nature of the imple- 

 ment used in the form of a surface cut along the line of frac- 

 ture. Besides this, heavy blows from a straight-edged stone axe 

 could not possibly have cut out the characteristic curves illus- 

 trated in Fig. 4, Plate XXXVII. That curves could be cut out by 

 an axe by continuous and careful chipping is quite within the range 

 of probability, but Fig. 8, Plate XXXVI., and Fig. 1, Plate 

 XXXVII., give very good reason for believing that chipping 

 in the manner adopted by man with a stone implement had not 

 been resorted to. In these we have the most interesting of 

 all the specimens, for they afford unquestionable evidence that 

 the bones have been cut, and neither chipped nor ground, and, if 

 this be so, we may reasonably conclude that the cutting through 

 out has been executed by the one agent and by the same means. 

 The importance, therefore, of discovering the maker of the cuts in 

 these two specimens is obvious, for in it lies the solution of the 

 whole problem. To take Fig. 8, Plate XXXVL, hrst— a small 

 fragment of a large limb bone, about 15 mm. from its broad end, on 

 its outer and convex surface, a roughly crescent-shaped shallow- 

 gash is present. Its length is about 12 mm. From the gash, 

 for a width of 6 mm., a slightly concave slice has been pared 

 from the surface of the bone to the termination of the broad 

 end. There is no mistaking the interpretation of the evidence. 

 The instrument with which the cut was made must have closed 

 on the bone at a verj' low angle, and then part of the cutting 



