Meat was undoubtedly an important component of the diet and quantities of animal bones are found in all sites. Many smaller animals such as rabbits, prairie dogs, gophers, badgers, and field mice, and some birds were snared or netted. The Basketmakers developed some remarkable snares and nets. One particularly interesting net, found at White Dog Cave near Kayenta, weighed twenty-eight pounds, and contained nearly four miles of string.[38] It was two hundred and forty feet long, over three feet wide, and somewhat resembled a tennis net. It is thought that such a net was placed across the mouth of a narrow gorge or canyon and that animals were driven into it and shot or clubbed. The specimen from White Dog Cave had two sections, one nine and one six feet long, woven of a hair and apocynum mixture which gave them a darker color. It is thought that this may have been done to produce the effect of an opening toward which a frightened animal would rush. Various ingenious snares, many made of human hair, were also used. Larger animals, including deer, mountain sheep, and mountain lion, were also hunted, and their bones and skins utilized as well as their flesh. These animals were shot with darts propelled by atlatls. An atlatl is a rather remarkable weapon which gives great propulsive force to the missile and which produces the same effect as would lengthening the arm of the individual throwing the dart. It consists of a throwing stick about two feet long, two inches wide and half an inch thick, with a prong in one end into which was fitted the hollow butt of a spear or dart. Near the middle were two loops through which the fingers of the thrower passed. The spear portion consisted of two parts, a feathered shaft five to six feet long and about half an inch in diameter with a hollow end which fitted into the prong on the atlatl and a foreshaft of hard wood, some five or six inches long, tipped with a stone point. It was set into a hole in the end of the main shaft. This foreshaft was probably used to prevent the loss of the entire spear or dart while removing it when the fore part was buried in an animal’s body. Also, if a wounded animal ran away the shaft proper would shake loose from the imbedded foreshaft and fall out. Polished stones are often found lashed to the under-sides of atlatls. It may be that they were designed to act as weights to give proper balance to the weapon, but another possibility, suggested by their unusual shapes and careful finish, is that they were charms or fetishes and served no utilitarian purpose. [Illustration: Fig. 9—a. Atlatl, b. Reverse side of atlatl showing stone, c. Dart showing shaft (mid-section removed), foreshaft, and point, d. Method of using atlatl, e. Grooved club.]