DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PLATES BONE IMPLEMENTS, ETC. [B. XVII.] 121 



R BONE IMPLEMENTS, &c. 



B. PLATE XVII. 



Fig. 1. The broken bone of a Bird (the radius of a Crane, perhaps) ; the upper 

 third is wanting. The lower articular extremity is too much damaged to allow 

 of exact definition of the species. The bone does not appear to have been cut 

 with a saw ; but the splintery edge of the fractured bone seems to have been 

 beaten down. The shaft bears throughout some fine longitudinal lines, indi- 

 cating that the bone has been scraped with a sharp and faintly notched tool, 

 showing the effect that we should expect to see produced with the sharp edge 

 of a piece of broken glass. Subsequently to these, the bone has been marked, 

 in the upper part, with several oblique transverse notches, plainly visible in the 

 figure ; and below these there is a group of lines cut across in different direc- 

 tions, one longitudinally, and others obliquely. On the opposite surface, the 

 upper notches are reproduced, but more neatly disposed in zigzag, and in such 

 a way as to represent a series of very angular chevrons, of which one of the 

 strokes is always more marked than the other. We do not propose any inter- 

 pretation for these marks or different combinations of notches, which could 

 scarcely have had an intentional meaning. 



Although we have figured this hollow bone on the same Plate with the 

 Sewing-needles, because as a little cylinder, hollow to the base, it is capable of 

 holding three or four of the most delicate of our bone Needles, yet we do not 

 wish to state it as a certainty, or any thing more than a possibility, that this 

 may have been employed for the same purpose as the needle-cases of our own 

 or of ancient times. 



From Les Eyzies. 



Fig. 2. The lower part of the metacarpal bone o a Reindeer, represented by its 



posterior face. At a, above the projecting ridge of one of the articular condyles, 



are two transverse notches, indicating the spot where the tendon, intended to be 



used for sewing-thread, must have been cut, as above said (at pages 131 and 138). 



From La Madelaine. 



Fig. 3. The upper portion of a metatarsal bone of a Reindeer, represented by its 



