Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/154

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HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING.

or circular habitation. In its primitive condition, the cairn or hillock of Châteleys had the figure of a cone with an oval base, and was 98 feet in length, and about 66 feet in width. The neck of land which served for its foundation was naturally in the form of an amphitheatre; and the covering of stones, formed of large pieces, contained absolutely nothing, and appeared to have been constructed solely with a view to protect the bed of débris covering the floor of the interior, against the effects of time and the cupidity of mankind. All around the stone which formed the altar, were spread long tracks of cinders mixed with charcoal, fragments of vases, and the calcined bones of men and horses. To one side of these extinguished fires, lay scattered on the ground the maxillary bones of pigs and the skeleton of a bear.


fig. 11


fig. 12

In the middle of the hearth, which occupied the north side, were found successively a little triangular file, 2½ inches in length (fig. 11); the fragment of a thick flat file, nearly an inch in width; a small chisel 1¼ inch long, intended to be fixed in a wooden handle (fig. 12); three iron cinders or scoriæ; two morsels of bronze castings about ⅓ inch thick, one of which was ornamented with round points, executed with the graving tool; a large iron hammer weighing 5 pounds, and still retaining six iron wedges which had been used to fix the handle (fig. 13). Not far from this hammer-head, under the heap of cinders that extended to the