140 Primaeval Man in the Valley of the Lea.
last year—what a tale the deep glacial scratches tell on the
original crust. One implement seems to say that its maker
had light and skilful fingers, and a true eye for a beautiful
and correct form. One example seems always to say that it
was made by an old man who had made many hundreds of
such tools before: the perfection of the manufacture and
the dexterity of the flaking prove it. Another seems to say
that it was made by a raw beginner, and confesses itself by its
form to be a failure, an abortion, and a waster, angrily thrown
away as worthless. One big acutely-pointed tool seems to say
that it was made specially to attack a Mammoth, a Rhino-
ceros, a Lion, a Horse, or a Man. Another confesses by its
shape to being a domestic tool, made by primaeval hands to
scrape the flesh from the bones of a Horse, or to prepare a skin
for a rude cloak. One says it was used for splitting wood,
another for felling a beast; some say they were made for neat
work, others for coarse ; some for hunting, others for peaceful
purposes at home. One tells how it lost its acute point
in a desperate contest, or by a provoking accident; another
how it lost its edge by long hacking at tough green wood;
another tells how its butt-end had been battered by constant
hammering: all shadow forth something to the thinking
observer.
Although it is easy to suggest the probable uses to which
many of the implements were put, yet there remain some
forms which defy all explanation ; our knowledge at present
is so imperfect of the men who made the tools and the
mode of life of those men that a ready explanation is hardly
to be expected of every object found in association with the
ordinary well-defined implements.
Although there is considerable variety of form in Palaeo-
lithic implements, and although several new forms have been
detected during the last ten years, it is very remarkable
that Palaeolithic men did not vary their tools more than
they did. When the pointed tongue shaped weapon was
invented, and then the oval or ovate tool with a cutting edge
all round or with an unworked butt, the men as a rule
were unable to proceed beyond the scraper to other forms;