Another weapon, more primitive, and at the same time more formidable, is the

horn of a stag converted

into a club by retaining the brow antler, while the rest are removed. A club of this kind is in our possession, derived from the teneviere of Auvernier, and must have belonged to a truly colossal animal. That of which we here give a sketch, (Fig. 76,) forms part of the collection of Dr. Clement, and measures fifty centimetres in length. With such an instrument we can conceive that terrible blows might be inflicted. We have in our collection a skull pierced with a round hole in the hinder part of the left parietal, which may well have been made with a club of this description. The horns of the stag were also employed for different utensils, as, for example, hammers, sixteen of which have been found in the single palafitte of Nussdorf at Lake Ueberlingen. There occur also hatchets of this material as well as clubs, pins, and even combs, (Keller,

6th Report, p. 280.) In

Figure 76.

the collection of Dr. Clement, we also meet with fish-hooks of stag's horn, composed of a straight stem with a lateral branch or barb, (Fig. 11a.) Sometimes

Figure 11a.

again these instruments were formed of the tusk of the wild boar by crossing it, a remarkable specimen of which may be seen in the collection of Dr. Uhlmann. The olecrane of the stag was sometimes carved into a poinard..

The long bones of certain animals (of the cow, the hog) are also often cut in

the form of pointed instruments (Figs. 8, 9) which might have served for poniards, lances, or pikes; others are in the form of chisels (Fig. 10) or of pins for the hair, (Fig. 11.) The flakes of silex were employed by way of a knife or

saw; we find many inserted in a fragment of horn, which were probably used in felling trees or cutting their branches, (Fig. 12.)

If these utensils cannot rival those of the age of stone in the north of Europe, if we possess none of those poniards artistically wrought which occur in the collections of Denmark and Mecklenburg, nor those elegantly formed knives of silex which recall the finest produced by the age of bronze, it is not the less true that we can realize a degree of emulation as having existed at this remote epoch between the inhabitants of different stations. The objects collected in the lakes of western Switzerland display something of finish, of care in the details, which is not to be recognized to the same degree in the stations of eastern Switzerland. This observation is particularly suggested by the symmetry and pleasing forms of certain objects which would have been equally as efficient without being so finished. The hammers are the articles of most elegance; they are always formed of hard stone, generally of serpentine, enlarged in the middle in order that the hole destined to receive the handle may not render them too fragile; one of the extremities is rounded or plane-the other con tracted more or less to an edge, and sometimes to a point. The hole itself is often irregular, being narrowed within, as an aperture would be if alternately

pierced from both faces, (see disk of Fig. 21.) In every instance the hole is smooth throughout and very little contracted, nor is it unusual to meet with the core or lump which corresponds to the cavity. The patience, perseverance, and skill required to execute the perforation of such an object cannot but occasion surprise, especially when performed without the help of metal. It was perhaps effected by means of very thin flakes of silex fixed around a stock which was made to turn in such a way as to separate a portion of the stone which, when the perforation was accomplished, would fall to the ground.* Precaution was observed to enlarge the hammer at the place where the hole for receiving the handle was situated, yet accidents would still occur, as is testified by the fragments of those broken in the operation which are much more numerous than entire ones. It might be that the instrument of perforation was fixed, and the hammer itself made to revolve, as with our stationary graving implements. Figures 13 and 14 represent a specimen in our collection. Like others of the

same type, it is perfectly unworn, which would seem to indicate that it was rather a symbol of command than a weapon. We have seen one, however, in the collection of Dr. Clement, which bears distinct traces of use.

*It would be more simple to suppose that the piercing was effected by means of a cylinder or hollow tube. But this would imply the use of metal, and would assign our hammers to the age of bronze, while as yet we know them as only pertaining to the age of stone. A discovery has just been made of some very fine ones in the palafitte of Greng, on Lake Morat, where there exists not a trace of metal. M. Lachmann mentions not less than fifty of them at the station of Nussdorf, (see Keller, 6th Report, p. 217,) which pertains to the age of stone, though it is true that some have been found in the palafitte of Unteruhdingen which is of the age of bronze. From the researches of M. Ley we learn that at the station of Bodman (small lake of Constance) the hammer hatchets are limited to the upper archæological stratum, while they are wanting in the lower; whence the author feels authorized to claim for these primitive tribes a progress in civilization during the period of stone.

Neither are hatchets rare; we possess them by dozens. A hard stone was chosen, preferably an erratic pebble of diorite, serpentine, quartzite, or saussurite, to which they managed to give an edge, (Fig. 15.) This was afterwards introduced into a socket made of buck-horn, which was itself cut in such a manner as to adopt itself to a handle of wood, (Fig. 16.) The sockets are quite frequently met with in certain localities, among others at Concise, but it is rare to find the two, (the hatchet in its socket,) and still more rare to possess the complete instrument, (hatchet, socket, and handle.) Dr. Clement has one of

the most complete specimens in existence, (Fig. 17;) it was derived from Concise. At other times the stone was inserted at the extremity of a portion of

buck-horn, which was pierced with a hole to receive a handle. The hatchet was supported against this handle, which prevented the wood from splintering. This instrument, which served at once as hatchet and hammer, (Fig. 18,) ranked, but a few months since, among the rare objects of our tenevieres. Now, thanks to the persistent researches of Dr. Clement, several dozens are known, representing the utensil in every state, from the rude outline to the complete instrument. At other times the hatchet is found simply attached to the extremity of a stag's antler; we know, however, but one specimen, being that in the collection of Dr. Clement, which is here represented. Along with the hatchets are found other

As is justly remarked by M. Demour, it is impossible not to be struck by the sagacity with which these ancient people selected materials which, with the exception of the metals, unite in the highest degree the three properties of density, hardness, and tenacity, conditions essential to the use and duration of these implements. (Comptes Rendus, August, 1865.)

stones cut smaller, fixed in simple fragments of buck-horn, and serving rather for chisels or paring-knives than for hatchets, properly so called. That repre

sented by figure 19 is of transparent nephrite of a fine leek-green color; it forms part of the collection of Dr. Clement,

Figure 19.

It is a characteristic distinction between our hatchets of the age of stone and those of anterior ages that the former are always worn down by sharpening on the grindstone, so as to present a very regular edge, which is never the case with the hatchets of Abbeville, of the caverns, nor those of the Kjoekkenmoedings of Denmark, which are simply cut by chopping.

Apart from these utensils, which are common to almost all savage tribes, we recognize, among our lacustrians of the age of stone, the beginnings of an art which attests the dawn of civilization. They manufactured pottery, somewhat shapeless and rude it is true, but which is not the less interesting, as well for its composition as its form and dimensions. It consists for the most part of large protuberant vessels, fashioned with the hand, the wheel of the potter being not yet known. The paste of which it is composed is but slightly homogeneous,

*It has been recently remarked that, in general, none but small hatchets of stone are found provided with handles, which would seem to warrant the conclusion that the largest, some of which weigh as much as two pounds, were not used with handles, but immediately with the hand. (Lachmann, 6th report of Dr. Keller, p. 277.)