946 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



A single specimen of a bow was preserved in tlie bog peat of the 

 lake dwellers and lias been found and exhibited to the eye of man — 

 "only this, and nothing more." Fig. 192 represents the original of 

 this specimen, now in the museum in Zurich, Switzerland, and found 

 by Jacob Messikomnier in the peat bog which was originally the lake 

 dwelling of Uobenhausen. The author has visited this station more 

 than once and has found many pieces of wood well preserved. The 

 piles themselves in this, as in all other pile dwellings, are of wood, and 

 almost every museum possesses specimens in certain stages of preser- 

 vation. The work on this specimen identifies it specifically as a 

 bow. The end "horns" show the notch for the retention of the bow 

 string, while the center has a certain style of decoration. 



Those interested in ancient bows, or bows of primitive, not i»re- 

 historic, peoples are referred to Doctor Mason's paper. 



IX. KNIVES. 



Mention has i)reviously been made of the possibility of the use by 

 prehistoric man of the implements described in this paper for other 

 puri)oses than as arrowpoints or spearheads (pp. <S23, 935, 938, 977). 

 The importance of the subject requires further investigation. 



Reference to the classification of these implements will show many 

 varieties, such as leaf shaped, triangular, stemmed, notched, shoul- 

 dered, and barbed, yet all these are variations only in details, the gen- 

 eral form, the material, and the processes of manufacture being the 

 same. Theprincii)al differences between the various kinds, those most 

 affecting their use and purpose, are in size and weight. It seems 

 strange that implements of such similarity in all functional character- 

 istics should differ so much in size and weight, and it is unreasonable to 

 believe that imidements of such extremes — (me very light and small, the 

 other large and heavy — could have been employed in the same manner 

 or have served the same purpose. It would indeed be strange if imple- 

 ments 15 or more inches long, as the Arvedsen specimen (Plate 65), or 

 those in Plates 01 and 04 in this paper and Plate 27 in "Prehistoric 

 Art," over 12 inches in length, should have been employed in the same 

 manner and for the same purpose as the small obsidian or jasper 

 "jewel points" from California and Oregon. Yet these are of the same 

 material, have the same style and mode of manufacture, their principal, 

 if not their only, difference being in size and weight. 



These implements, with their extreme variations, are not confined to 

 any particular locality or country. The large, finely wrought, leaf- 

 shaped blades have been found in Mexico as well as in central France, 



