1 2 PREHISTORIC E UR OPE. 



a form commonly met with in those beds. Figs. 3 to 8 are all 

 from caves in the Dordogne, and are copied from Reliquiae Aqui- 

 tanicce. Fig. 3 was probably used as a drill for piercing holes. 

 Fig. 4 may have been a lance-head ; Fig 5 is a lanceolate tool 

 or weapon of some sort ; and Fig. 6 is evidently a saw. Fig. 7 

 is supposed to be a harpoon-head, " carved out of antler, broken 

 at one end, and furnished with a lancet-shaped point (imperfect), 

 and a single barb at the other." The carvings represent a horse's 

 head, a deer (the head and neck alone being carefully executed), 

 and what appears to be intended for a fish. Fig. 8 is the handle 

 of a poniard, shaped as a reindeer. The original illustration in 

 Reliquiae Aquitanicce shows the whole weapon — handle and 

 blade — which are cut out of the beam of a reindeer's horn. 

 (With the exception of Fig. 1, which is half the size of the 

 original, all the drawings represent the actual dimensions of the 

 objects portrayed.) With regard to the mode in which these 

 and others were used, only conjectures can be offered. Some 

 may have been hafted like the stone axes of certain modern 

 savages; while others may have been held in the hand, and 

 used as scrapers for dressing skins, for smoothing wooden 

 handles, and horns, and bones. With some, Palaeolithic man 

 may have grubbed up esculent roots, and others he may have 

 employed as wedges for splitting wood; while some of the 

 smaller ones, Dr. Evans suggests, may have been missiles. The 

 larger ones (Fig. 1, Plate A), which occur sometimes plentifully 

 in certain ancient river-gravels, have been supposed by Professor 

 Prestwich to be possibly implements used for cutting holes in 

 the ice when the rivers were frozen over, for the purpose of 

 fishing or of obtaining water. Besides these worked tools, 

 Palaeolithic man also used certain stones, such as granite, 

 indurated red sandstone, and quartzose grit, as hammers or 

 pounders, probably for mashing roots, breaking and crushing 

 bones, and other purposes. Such stones usually show the marks 

 of battering on one or more faces. 



It is remarkable that nearly all the Palaeolithic worked 

 implements are formed of flint and chert, and chiefly of the 



