26 CONTENTS OF A BONE CAVE. 



HOMO, Linn. 



Associated with the remains described in the preceding pages, Dr. Rijgersma 

 discovered a highly interesting relic of the stone age of the human inhabitants 

 of this portion of the West Indian Islands. I use the term " stone age" in a 

 chronological sense only, since the region in question possesses chiefly coral rock, 

 and little or none that is adapted for conversion into cutting instruments, so that 

 the inhabitants resorted to the use of animal products, as teeth, bones, and shells. 

 The implement found by Dr. Rijgersma is a long-ovate spoon-shaped scraper or 

 chisel, cut by human hands from the lip of the large Strombus gigas. The ribs of 

 the external surface and the smooth internal surface are easily distinguished, and 

 the distinct natures of the lamellar and prismatic layers have been evidently well 

 understood by the artificer, who has ground away the latter in order to put a sharp 

 edge on the former at one end. This edge is sharp, and mainly well preserved. 

 The implement has a greater median width, and smoothly ground thick margin ; 

 the end of the plate is obtuse and with thick edge, almost entirely composed of 

 the prismatic layer. It has evidently been held in the hand, and been used after 

 the manner of the stone scrapers of the North American Indians. 



This chisel was found by Rijgersma under circumstances precisely similar to those 

 attending the discovery of the gigantic rodents. Some portions of each of the 

 species described were imbedded in the breccia, and others occurred loose in a red 

 earth in cavities of the breccia. The chisel has the color and constitution of the 

 latter teeth and bones, and was found with them in this earth. Some of the teeth 

 are even more fresh-looking and less stained than the chisel. 



A good figure may be found in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical 

 Society for 1868, Vol. XI. Plate V. fig. 4, which is repeated ou Plate 1., of the 

 present work. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



So far as the appearance presented by the specimens described in the preceding 

 pages is an indication, all may have been buried in the cave deposit at one time, 

 and may represent animals which lived together on the Island of Anguilla. But 

 the iron oxide of the deposit evidently imparts so deep a stain to whatever is buried 

 in the cave, that it is impossible to base an estimate of the age of such objects by 

 their color alone. It is well known that no species of Bovidce is indigenous to any 

 part of the Neotropical realm, including the West Indian Islands, and that indi- 

 viduals of that genus now in the islands arc importations. But the bones of the 

 ruminant of Anguilla are as deeply colored as those of the Amblyrhiza, some of them 

 even more so. It is also evident that the implement made from the lip of Strombus 

 gigas has been for a long period exposed to the iron oxide, since its stain is deeply 

 fixed, totally replacing the natural color, even to the usual white of the dense 

 enamel of the inner surface seen in fossils of early tertiary age. 



Whether the extinct genus Amhlyrliiza was contemporary with the ruminant and 



