Essentially hunters, and certainly warriors, the men of this period bestowed their chief attention upon their arms. They probably felt a certain pride in possessing the finest or the best cut weapons; but the relative indifference which they betrayed in the matter of other objects, shows us that their chief aim in the finish of their work was to make their weapons more terrible by increasing their power of penetration. Several fragments of bone, discovered in places remote from each other, and belonging to several periods, prove that these weapons of flint, handled by strong hands, left nothing to be desired in this respect. I shall only mention the vertebra of a reindeer, which had been pierced through by a lance or a javelin, and a human tibia, through the head of which an arrow has passed near to the kneepan. In both cases the broken flint has remained, testifying to the good quality of the weapon and to the strength with which it was used. At the time of the deposition of the upper river gravels, and when the predominance of the reindeer was most marked, the industry of the men of Cro-Magnon underwent a sudden change. Till then flint, and, in its absence, other hard stones, had furnished both the implement and the instrument formed by the aid of the former. Doubtless from the earliest times, bones and the antlers of the stag or reindeer, had been used from time to time; but they only played an almost insignificant part in the manufacture of tools or weapons. During the epoch of which we are speaking, they acquired a growing importance, and soon furnished almost the only material for weapons. Flint was now only used to make the implements, and these, on the other hand, became more numerous, and fitted for the most varied uses. It was with flints that the troglodytes of Les Eyzies, of Laugerie-Basse, of La Madeleine, and a great number of other settlements, sawed and carved their reindeer antlers to make strong harpoons, which were barbed on one side only. It was with flint that they pointed needles not much longer than our own, and pierced the eye. In some specimens the latter is so small that the piercing of it remained a problem, till Lartet reproduced it with his own hand, using one of the implements which he had discovered. But the most characteristic object of the _Magdalénian_ type is the arrow-head, regularly barbed on both sides, the teeth of which contain little channels, probably intended as the receptacle of some poisonous substance.