PREHISTORIC KITCHEN-MIDDENS. 129 
always turned up, that he had no hesitation in ascribing 
the absence of the softer parts to the agency of dogs, whose 
presence in greater numbers than any other carnivora had 
already been established by the relatively much larger 
proportion of their bones. That the disappearance of the 
soft and juicy portions of the bones was not due to casual 
visitors was inferred from the fact that the bones through 
the entire mass were similarly treated. The gnawers of the 
bones must therefore have been constant companions of the 
people during all their feasts; and hence the inference that 
they were a breed of domestic dogs. The Professor further 
strengthened this important generalisation by proving 
experimentally that when dogs have free access to the bones 
of mammals and birds, the portions left are precisely the 
same as those found in the Kjékkenmdddings. In order to 
make these interesting deductions still more forcible, he 
constructed diagrammatic skeletons of an ox and a duck, 
indicating by degrees of linear shading the portions of the 
bones respectively gnawed by dogs and broken by man. 
Alongside of the bird skeleton is placed that of a young 
pigeon (copied from Flourens’ work, Sur le développement 
des Os et des Dents), showing the portions of the bones 
which become first ossified. From these diagrams it will 
be seen at a glance how closely the portions of the bones 
eaten by dogs correspond with those that become last 
ossified in the young animal. 
IJ.—TuHE NEOLITHIC STATION oF BUTMIR. 
The site of the prehistoric settlement of Butmir lies some 
8 miles to the west of Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia) in 
the vicinity of the thermal spring and baths of Ilidze, a 
much frequented and fashionable watering-place. The 
medicinal qualities of this spring had also been recognised 
by the Romans, a fact clearly proved by the discovery in 
recent times of various Roman remains—mosaic pavements, 
baths, conduit-pipes, ete.—around the spot where the hot 
water gushes out of the earth. The surrounding plain is a 
fine alluvial basin, about 7 miles in length and from 4 to 5 
VOL. II. 9 
