116 Sjyencer <nid Walcott : 



When, however, the bonevS were received by us, they nearly 

 all, including; the one under discussion, had some of their 

 matrix adhering to them, and it was only after cleaning the 

 specimen that the true nature of the notches became evident. 

 The whole surface shows the effect of age ; the cuts, especially, 

 instead of being smooth as new cuts would be, are more or 

 less corroded. Again, on part of the surface of the bone there 

 is a strongly adherent coating of calcium carbonate, which has 

 in one place entered a notch and covered a portion of it. The 

 notches have either been produced by man or by the teeth of 

 some especially powerful animal. In the latter case, it is 

 difficult to realise hoAv the work could have been done without 

 severing the head from the shaft. That this would have been 

 the result of continued pressure of a wedge-shaped tooth is 

 certain, so that the notches must be due, whatever the agent 

 may have been, to a series of blows given in like manner that 

 an axe is used by man. 



We have previously mentioned that a study of some cuts 

 apparently made by Tliylacoleo leads us to believe they w^ere 

 produced by a similar chopping action with his premolars. The 

 notches, however, are more particularly suggestive of human 

 workmanship, but w^e are faced with the objection that we 

 know of no instance in Avhich Australian man has severed bones 

 in such a manner, or, indeed, in which he has cut bones at 

 all comparable to any of those described in this paper. The 

 usual method seems to have been to simply break the bone 

 transversely, or even longitudinally, by blows from a blunt 

 implement, and subsequently, by grinding, to fashion from the 

 piece of bone thus prepared the desired article. The conse- 

 quence of this procedure is that all the bone implements we 

 have examined where only one end has been ground, either 

 showed the head of the bone untouched, or else the original 

 jagged fracture without modification, in cases where the head 

 has been removed. It seems scarcely likely, when such a simple 

 and rapid operation accomplishes all that is required, that the 

 prehistoric ilustralian native would resort to the laborious and 

 lengthy business of chipping through a tough bone of fair sub- 

 stance with a stone implement in order to separate the head 

 from the shaft, with the object of afterwards employing the 



