Jump to content

Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 22.djvu/464

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.
448
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

tween them, first round one, then the next, and so on. None of them show any signs or attempts at boring from end to end.[1]

Deer and elk horns enter largely into the manufacture of many of the relics. Among others are what are known as bone arrow or spear

Fig. 3.

points, shown in Figs. 3 and 4. They are invariably made from the sharp points of horn, the piece being first cut off, and then a hole drilled into the blunt end with a flint. Marks made by the drill are still distinctly seen in the holes. The points were fastened to wooden shafts inserted in the holes. Now, strange though it may seem, relics

Fig. 4. Fig. 5.

of an exactly similar make and of exactly the same sort of material are found thousands of miles away. Dr. F. Keller, in his elaborate book on the "Lake-Dwellers of Europe," gives figures[2] of these implements found in the Swiss lake-dwellings, and Fig. 5 is taken from his book. It is immediately seen that the relics from the two localities are identical, with the exception of the small hole drilled into the side. In Fig. 5 one of the arrow-points has a portion of the shaft still fastened in the hole.

Large pieces of deer and elk-horn, with the prongs polished by constant use, have probably been employed as digging implements. Smaller pieces of the flat part of the horn, with two or three prongs,

  1. Since this was written, Dr. Phené, of England, suggests that they were used as currency, and it is very possible that this was the case.
  2. See plates 45, 62, 89, and 91 for these figures. The ones here given are copied from Figs. 25 and 28 on plate 62, and Fig. 6 on plate 91.