Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/526

504 been used in breaking open the bones for the marrow, which seems, from the fractured condition of all bones that contained it, to have been a favourite food among the French cave-dwellers. Wexovius, quoted by Scheffer, says: "The marrow of raindeer is of a delicious taste, which they value in Lapland, just as we do oisters or some other outlandish dainties."

Another object which has to be mentioned is a sort of whetstone of purplish-grey grit. It is a nearly square prism, 4 inches long, and with the sides rather less than 1 inch wide. It was found in a recess beneath a projecting bed of limestone, in situ, but sealed in beneath a thick mass of stalagmitic breccia. A fragment of another, of finer grained greenish grit, has also been found beneath stalagmite, 26 inches thick. This latter, according to Sir Wollaston Franks, closely resembles some stones found in the Bruniquel caves, both in form and material.

It will naturally be inquired, for what purpose were these whetstones required, and what is the meaning of all these marks of wear on the edges of the flint tools, as if they had been used for scraping some hard substance? Fortunately the answer is not far to seek. The latter were used not only as weapons of the chase, and in cutting and preparing food, but also in the manufacture of various implements of bone, and possibly of ivory, such as harpoon-heads, pins, and even needles, as well as other instruments of unknown use. The wearing away of the edges of many of the flint-flakes is precisely of that character which I find by experiment to result from scraping bone; while it seems probable that the use of the whetstones was for putting the final polish on the bone instruments, and sharpening their points, for either of which purposes, mere scraping-tools like those of flint would be but inefficient.

It is not, of course, to be expected, that these instruments and weapons of bone should occur in anything approaching to the same numbers as the simple instruments of flint. The latter were readily made, and therefore of little value. They were also soon worn out and thrown aside; but the former required considerable time and skill in their preparation, and would not be discarded unless broken; and if accidentally lost, would be worth the trouble of being sought for. In some of the French caves, however, in which the deposits, unlike those in Kent's Cavern, are strictly of a refuse character, like the shell-mounds of Denmark, a larger proportion of them has occurred than here.

The principal objects of the kind, discovered below the stalagmite in Kent's Cavern, are portions of harpoon-heads, a pin, awl, and a needle, which it will be well to describe, as they afford links of connection between the relics of this and other caves.

The harpoon-heads are of two kinds, some being barbed on both sides, others on one only. Of the former kind, but one example (No. 2,282) has been found, which is shown in Fig. 403. It lay in the second foot in depth, in the red cave-earth in the vestibule. Above this was the black band 3 inches thick, containing flint-flakes and remains of extinct mammals; and above this again, the stalagmite