248 



T. McK. Hughes — Man in the Crag. 



but many, indeed most of them, have the commencement of similar 

 perforations all over the tooth wherever the enamel has not extended 

 or has been removed. (See Fig. 2.) Other fossils of the Crag, such 

 as the ear-bones of whales and concretionary nodules, are bored in 

 exactly the same manner. Similar phosphatic remains in other de- 

 posits, such as the so-called coprolite-bed near Cambridge, are found 

 to have similar perforations. 



Kg. 1. 



Figs. 1. and 2. Water-worn teeth of Carcharodon, sp. from the Suffolk Crag. 



Fig. 1. Perforated through near its base by 

 Lithodomus MoUusk (or by a Buccinum ?) 



Fig. 2. Perforated partially by boring 

 MoUusk. 



Therefore there is not, in the position and manner of distribu- 

 tion of the holes, any evidence of design. Nor is there evidence of 

 human workmanship in the character of the holes themselves. 

 Though some of the holes are clean cut right through, the opening 

 on one side is not always exactly opposite, or of the same size, as 

 that on the other, and the interior of the cavity is often irregular, so 

 that a perforating instrument, such as savages would be likely to use 

 for the purpose, could not be pushed through from one side to the 

 other. 



Therefore the characters of the holes themselves do not point to human 

 agency. But is there any direct evidence of other agents which may 

 have produced the perforations ? In the phosphatic deposits at the base 

 of the Chalk it is not uncommon to find the shells of the lithodomi 

 which have honeycombed an ammonite or other fossil. The cavities 

 formed by these animals are easily recognized by their shape, which 

 is something like a sodawater-bottle. I selected a tooth from the 

 Crag which had a hole on one side only, but which was in other re- 

 spects similar to some of those which ran through. (See Fig. 3.) 

 Mr. J. B. Jordan cut it across for me with delicate machinery, and 

 displayed the well-known form of the lithodomus cell. (See Fig. 3rt.) 



If such a borer attacked a thin tooth imbedded in clay at the 

 bottom of the sea, it would drill a hole clean through the tooth into 

 the clay below ; or if the tooth were more or less enveloped in con- 

 cretionary phosphatic matter, which is very commonly the case, the 

 same result would be produced. When the encasing matter was 



