ON Kent's cavekn, Devonshire. 191 



were cleaned and packed, the boxes were stowed away in a room set apart 

 for them, the door was locked, and the Secretary never parted with the key. 

 It is obvious that the number of boxes of specimens waiting for examination 

 was equal to the number of " yards " in which fossils have been found. On 

 the 31st of December, 1868, this number was 3948 ; and though it is true 

 that some of the boxes contained no more than a single bone, it is also true 

 that in many of them there were upwards of a hundred ; hence it will be 

 seen that the task Mr. Dawkins had before him possessed Herculean dimen- 

 sions. When he began his examination, there must have been in store for 

 him more than 50,000 bones ; and though many of them were unidentifiable 

 chips merely, every one had to pass under review. 



In order that this gigantic labour might be somewhat facilitated, the Secre- 

 tary commenced to unpack each box, and to write on every specimen it con- 

 tained the number written on the accompanying label. While thus engaged, 

 on the 24th of September, 1868, with the box labelled 1847, he found amongst 

 its contents what appeared at first to be merely a very small bone, the greater 

 part of which was covered with a film of stalagmite. On being touched, the 

 investment fell oif (a very common occuiTence in the case of similar speci- 

 mens after having been washed and dried), and the object proved to be a por- 

 tion of a bone needle, having its point broken off but retaining its perfect 

 and weU-formed eye. This part had been concealed and, happily, protected 

 by the calcareous covering. The remnant is about -85 inch long and is 

 shghtly taper. Its section at right angles to its longest axis is subelliptical, 

 resembling that of a modern bodkin rather than that of a needle. Its greater 

 diameter at the larger end is about -075 inch, and at the smaller -05 inch ; 

 hence, assuming it to have been symmetrical in form and to have terminated 

 in a point, its original length must have been 2-55 inches. There are nume- 

 rous fine longitudinal striae on its sui-face, suggesting that it had been scraped 

 into form. The Secretary's daily journal shows that it was exhumed on the 

 4th of December, 1866, and that it belonged to the Black Band beneath the 

 Stalagmitic Ploor. 



Since its discovery it has unfortunately been broken, the Line of fracture 

 passing through the eye. Before the accident it had been seen by several 

 members of the Committee and by many other persons. The parts have been 

 very carefully and firmly reunited. The eye was capable of carrjung a thread 

 about three-eightieths of an inch in diameter, or about the thickness of fine 

 twine. 



On November 26th, 1868, while still engaged in preparing the specimens 

 for Mr. Boyd Dawkins, the Secretary had the good fortune to detect, under 

 precisely similar conditions, in the box labelled 2206, a bone " harpoon " or 

 fish-spear barbed on one side only. When dug out of the deposit it was in 

 two pieces, one of which was almost, and the other completely, encrusted 

 with stalagmite. Indeed the latter was regarded as a pipe of stalactite, and 

 as such was preserved. It is recorded in the Secretary's journal that it was 

 disinterred on the 7th of March, 1867, in the Vestibule, in the first or upper- 

 most foot-level of Cave-earth, beneath the Black Band, which was 4 inches 

 thick, and which was covered with a Stalagmitic Ploor varying from 12 to 

 20 inches in thickness, and that this, again, was overlaid with Black Mould 

 containing pre-Koman and Romano-British objects. 



The fact that remains of the extinct Cave-bear, Hyaena, and Rhinoceros 

 have been met with not only in the Stalagmitic Floor just mentioned, but 

 quite at its upper surface, must be borne in mind when attempting to form 

 an estimate of the chronology of the needle and " harpoon " just described. 



