ABSENCE OF POLISHED IMPLEMENTS. 253 



appearance of having been intended for this purpose. On the 

 whole, then, although these Le Moustier types are of great 

 interest, we must pause before we regard them as belonging 

 to the drift forms. 



No polished implements have yet been found in any of these 

 caverns. Yet the collection made by the late M. Mourcin, in 

 the neighbourhood of Perigueux, contains, among 5025 ob- 

 jects of stone, no less than 3002 polished axes, of which, 

 however, many are imperfect. Doubtless, among the im- 

 mense variety of forms presented by the flint implements 

 from these caves, further study will distinguish other types, 

 and we may fairly hope that it will throw more light on 

 the purposes for which they were designed. 



The station at Moustier has not as yet produced any im- 

 plements made of bone, but a good many have been obtained 

 from the other caves. "They consist of square chisel- shaped 

 implements ; round, sharply pointed, awl-like tools, some of 

 which also may have served as the spike of a fish-hook ; har- 

 poon shaped lanceheads ; plain or barbed arrow-heads with 

 many and double barbes, cut with wonderful vigour; and 

 lastly, eyed needles of compact bone finely pointed, polished, 

 and drilled with round eyes so small and regular, that some 

 of the most assured and acute believers in all the other find- 

 ings might well doubt whether they could indeed have been 

 drilled with stone, until their repetition by the hand of that 

 practical and conscientious observer, Monsieur Lartet, by the 

 very stone implements found with them, has dispelled their 

 honest doubts."* Moreover, we must remember that the 

 New Zealanders were able with their stone tools to drill 

 holes even through glass. f 



So far, then, with the exception, perhaps, of the well- 

 worked lanceheads of Laugerie and Badegoule, all the evi- 

 dence we have yet obtained from these caves points to a 



* Trans, Ethnological Soc. N.S. vol. iii. f Cook's First Voyage, p. 464. 



