550 
EEPOET ON THE EXPLOEATION OE BBIXHAM CAVE. 
widest part, and about half an inch thick. It has been made from a large flake or 
splinter of flint with an approximately flat face, showing strongly the curved and waved 
lines of conchoidal fracture, and has been shaped by a succession of blows given in such 
a manner as not to injure the flat face, but to produce a more or less bevelled scraping 
or cutting edge all round. Some parts of this edge seem to 
present appearances of wear by use. In general character this 
implement resembles that of a boat-shaped form discovered by 
M. Lartet in the cavern of Aurignac, but it is not so neatly or 
symmetrically finished; at the same time it is more carefully 
chipped than an implement of nearly similar form from the valley 
gravel of the Lark, at Icldingham, Suffolk, which is in my own 
collection. Closely analogous implements occurred in the cavern 
of Le Moustier, in the Dordogne, explored by Messrs. Lartet 
and Christy (see ‘ Reliquiae Aquitanicse,’ a. pi. iii. fig. 1). It is 
shown in the figure on the scale of one half. 
Nos. 6, 8. Round-pointed implement of a lanceolate form, about 6 inches in length 
and 2^ inches in diameter at the butt-end, which is roughly cylindrical. In general 
outline it closely resembles the spear-shaped 
implements from the valley gravels of France 
and England. 
The point is symmetrically chipped, but 
the original surface of the flint has been left 
over the greater part of the butt-end, which 
is more squarely truncated than is usual 
with chalk flints, but is well adapted for being 
held in the hand. The implement has had 
the pointed end broken off by an irregularly 
diagonal fracture (f) rather more than half 
way along it, and the butt-end has subse- 
quently split up lengthways with what might 
be called a “ faulted ” line of fracture, and 
about a quarter of it has been lost. The 
fractures are evidently of very ancient date ; 
but what is most remarkable is that the butt- 
end (6) was found 12th August, 1858, 3 feet 
deep in the loam bed in the “ Flint-knife 
Gallery,” 27 feet from its eastern extremity 
or junction with the “ Reindeer Gallery,” while the point (8) was not found until 9th 
September following, 3 feet 6 inches deep in the loam bed in the “ Pen Gallery,” and 
14 feet from its entrance or its junction with the West Chamber. It was not until 
some time afterwards that it was discovered that the two fragments fitted each other 
