ON CUTS ON BONE IN REMOTE AGES. 213 
will mark an iron trap, or even the keen edge of a rodent’s 
incisor, which will deeply score any bone that lies across its 
burrow. The bones in the badger earth at Barnwell were 
cut and scratched.* So we have fish and reptiles suggested 
as the agents which might have produced such marks. 
In the Woodwardian Museum I find a Kimmeridge 
Clay fish, the intervals between whose pointed teeth 
exactly agree with the intervals between the cuts on the 
saurian bone. There are many saurian jaws also of which 
the same might be said. Perhaps, therefore, even before the 
paddle was detached, and while there was still some fiesh 
on it, shoals of hungry fish and reptiles kept biting, and 
tearing, and leaving teeth-marks when the bone was reached. 
But this is guess work. What is certain is that the cuts are 
not the work of man. 
The Crainmay.—I presume I need hardly put it to the meeting 
that we should return our thanks to Professor Hughes for his very 
interesting paper, which it has been a great pleasure to listen to. 
It is now open to those present who have studied the subject to 
commence the discussion. 
Mr. Park Harrison, M.A.—I need scarcely ask whether Professor 
Hughes, who is so completely up in his subject, can answer me this 
question : I remember that not very long ago there was a disputed 
point, in the Eastern Counties, I think, of this kind. Those present 
will remember what I am referring to. There had been some 
bou'der clay, supposed to be am sztw, and the Professor detected that 
this boulder clay had been washed down, or had been brought from 
rather higher ground. It had covered certain works, supposed to 
be the work of man, and I think that was accepted. I was merely 
going to ask him this question, and, as I say, I must almost 
apologise for worrying him; but J think the meeting will like to 
hear anything that can be disposed of as a possible objection. Is 
there any higher ground beyond this Kimmeridge Clay from which 
it might be dissolved and washed down, and then appear quite as if 
it had never been washed down? 
Admiral J. H. Serwyy, R.N.—In my naval experience I have 
known sharks capable of biting bones in two, the thigh bones of man 
yielding to them like so many tobacco-pipes, and I can well believe 
* See Geol. Mag., Dec. 2, vol. x., p. 454. 
