ARROWPOINTS, SPEARHEADS, AND KNIVES. 853 



of the Paleolithic occupation at Mesviii is to the west of the river 

 De IS^oiivelles, between it and the river Le By. A portion of the 

 railway cut through the Neolithic flint mine at Spiennes is shown 

 in fig. 48. 



Messrs. Cornet and Briart and M.Houzeau de Lahaye were charged by 

 the scientific society of Hainault to supervise the excavations of the 

 railway for evidences of i>rehistoric man. They rei)orted several con- 

 clusions, that which interests us being that the men of the i)olished- 

 stone age had dug pits or mines into the great chalk and clay deposit 

 to obtain flint nodules for the manufacture of their tools and weapons, 

 and that extensive and important work had been done in these mines 

 in times of antiquity. 



The railway cut brought to light within its area no less than 25 of 

 these pits. The cut extends about 40 feet below the surface of the 

 plateau, which was fortunate, for it thus showed the i)rehistoric mines 

 to their entire depth. These mines, as shown in fig. 49, were in the 

 form of pits or shafts. The shaft was sunk from the surface perpen- 

 dicularly through the clay and sand until it reached the chalk. The 

 shafts were 2, 3, and 4 feet in diameter, longer than wide for facility in 

 working, and the deepest was about 3<) feet. Arrived at the chalk, 

 galleries were thrown ofl:' horizontally in searching for the nodules of 

 flint. The galleries were from 20 to 6J feet in height, and from 3,3 to 9 

 feet in Avidth. An enlarged view of one of these shafts and mines shows 

 its corresponding gallery pushed to the right and left, through the 

 chalk, in search of the nodules of flint therein contained. There are no 

 means of determining the number of these shafts, nor the number or 

 extent of the galleries, without an extensive system of trenching through- 

 out the plateau, which would be too expensive; but a fair idea can be 

 gathered of it when it is said that the entire surface of the plateau is 

 dotted witli the filled shafts. They are found every few rods. If one 

 digs beneath the surface but little more than the depth of the plow, he 

 will find an ancient shaft. Several of them have been excavated to the 

 bottom and the galleries followed to their ends. The diflerences in the 

 earth, filled in and natural, render them recognizable with certainty. 



In fig. 50 the shaft communicated with the surface by an opening 

 shown on the right. Whether this was natural or artificial was unde- 

 termined. The debris with which it was filled represented everything 

 met with in the exploration. It was a confused mass of sand, lime, 

 blocks of chalk, chips, flakes, and nodules of flint, with the bones of 

 different animals, pieces of pottery, and not infrequently implements 

 of bone, deer horn, and flint. 



The mouths of these shafts were usually broken away around the 

 sides, giving them somewhat the form of a funnel. But this was only 

 for a short distance down, when the sides or walls of the pit becjame 

 perpendicular (figs. 51, 52). 



The pits and galleries were sometimes caved in, but usually they 



