1892-93.] 



NOTES OX THE WESTERN DENES. 



63 



To all appearances, the stone daggers* of the prehistoric Denes were 

 distinguished from their spears by two pecuHarities : the shortness of the 

 handle and the greater dimensions of the blade. I would call the 

 attention of antiquarians to the size, shape and finish of the above 

 illustrated dagger blade (fig. 39). Although evidently broken off at 

 the tip end, it is still fully 83^ inches in length and 3 inches in width. 

 Yet it is not more than Vq of an inch in its greatest thickness. It has 

 been chipped off to an almost perfectly flat surface, the flakes being as in 

 the Solutrian implements remarkably large and shaving-like. Neverthe- 

 less this exquisite relic of prehistoric workmanship has been found, not in 

 the cavern of Solutre, but scarcely two hundred yards from where these 

 lines are written. I may add that it was found on the surface of the 

 ^roundf and is of exactly the same material as the great majority of 

 Dene arrow heads. 



The Dene dagger was carried about hanging from the belt through a 

 a leather thong, as is now done with its modern substitute, the steel 

 poniard. 



Fig- 40. Vi size. 



* Mecyal, second cai. 



t'rhe foregoing liad Iieen writtea for some time wlien I canie across the following passage of 

 Mr. D. Boyle's .Arcliieological Report for 1891 (p. 10) wliich I had overlooked in the haste of the 

 first reading : " While many specimens (especially flaked one>) found in different parts of the 

 province, may be classed as palKoliths, they have, up to the present time always been loiind 

 associated in such a way vvitli neoliths that it is impossible to designate them as poise jliths with 

 any degree of certainty. Leaf-shaped "flints" have been picked up that are quite as rudely 

 formed as any from the deepest stalagmite deposits of Europe, but never in situations to suggest 

 that ihey are other than rough-hewn tools or weapons, which, as such had a puri)ose in the 

 economy of people who are capable of producing better things. Until we find specimens of this 

 kind, as Dr. Abbot found them in the Trenton gravels, or in some situations isolated from all 

 others, or distinct as to material or coating from specimens of a superior quality in the same 

 neighbourhood, we shall not be warranted in making any distinction relative to time of possible 

 production." It is gratifying to hear of would-be palseoliths being found even in Eastern Canada 

 .alongside with neolitlis, for this coincidence appears to me a confirmation of the opinion that, in 

 America at least, these divergences of type are suggestive less of distinct epochs than of unequal 

 skill in the craftsmen, or possibly ethnic difference in the race, that produced them. I am 

 persuaded that had Sir. A. Mackenzie examined with the care of an antiquarian the arms of the 

 Western Denes whom he met one hundred years ago, he would have found both styles co-existing 

 -amonsr them. 



