FOSSIL deer's horn FROM CLACTON. 
353 
quite uninjured. When it was shown to me, it was saggested that 
it had been dredged up before, the horns sawn off, and the base 
thro^vn back into the sea ; but, on applying a lens, I perceived on 
the sawn surface a portion of the peculiar sandy matrix bound toge- 
ther with oxide of iron, which adheres to all the fossil bones from 
Clacton. 
Of course it would be very difficult to prove a geological antiquity 
for these saw cuts, because a film of iron left in the process of a recent 
sawing might, in undergoing oxidation, have cemented some grains 
of sand together ; but the general condition of the surfaces, leads 
rae to think that we have before us the work of an ancient man, and 
he not very unskilled in the use of his tools. The girth of the base 
of the bone is nine inches. 
When I called upon you on the 10th inst., to leave with you the 
specimen of the deer's-horn for making an illustration, you were so 
good as to point out to me an incision and hollowing out of one of 
the cut faces with the apparent intention of fixing a flint implement 
of some kind in it, and at the same time you directed my attention 
to some specimens in the British Museum. As these illustrate the 
possible use for which Dr. Brees' specimen may have been intended, 
I will shortly describe them. The specimens are four in number. 
ISTone of them are so old as the drift. The first is from the Lake 
dwellings recently discovered at Neufchatel in Switzerland ; it is a 
portion of deer's-horn of a very remarkable form. From a to & is 
three and a half inches, and from c to d 
three inches. - The hole to carry the stone 
axe at c reaches upwards into the portion, 
d, which was intended for insertion into a 
stout wooden handle, so that the axe would 
stand at right angles to the handle, and 
the shoulder, a h, would resist the momen- 
tum of the blow. 
The other three specimens are from superficial deposits of the 
valley of the Somme. From a to 5 is 
four inches, and from d to e two and a 
quarter inches, c is a flint celt rubbed 
perfectly smooth inserted in a hole at b. 
d is a branch of the horn cut off, and 
the stump pierced with a small hole to 
carry the handle of the axe.* 
The other two specimens are from the same locality, and of a very 
similar form. The flint celts have fallen out. They appear at pre- 
sent with rude flake-shaped implements inserted into them, but these 
are evidently not the original ones, and the plaster of Paris into 
which they are fixed is easily discernible. In all these axes it is 
* This specimen is figured at p. 22 in vol. iv. of this magazine. 
VOL IV. 2 0 
