Though fire would naturally suggest some rude method of cooking, we can scarcely find a trace of such operations, and it has been a matter of conjecture how they proceeded. Sir John Lubbock thinks they boiled their food, and in the absence of pottery used wooden or skin vessels, bringing the water to a boiling point by means of stones heated red hot and thrown into the water. He points out the presence of peculiarly shaped stones found in some caves, which he thinks were used for this purpose.19 It is not supposed they had any articles of pottery during this epoch. This is quite an important point, because a knowledge of pottery marks an important epoch in the culture of a people. Cave Bear, Incised on Slate. A people possessed of this knowledge have passed from Savagism into the lower status of Barbarism.20 A piece of pottery is as little liable to destruction as a piece of bone, and so, had those people possessed pottery, there is no reason why pieces of it should not be found in every refuse heap, and amongst the _débris_ of all caves. But such is not the case; no fragments of pottery have yet been found which can be referred with confidence to the epoch of the Cave-men.21 Some speculations have been indulged in as to whether the men of this age were cannibals or not. It need occasion no surprise if they were, since ancient writers assert that even during historical times this practice prevailed in Europe.22 Though not definitely proven there are many facts difficult of explanation, except on this supposition. However, it may well be that this, after all, only amounted to the custom of eating parts of an enemy killed in battle, as certain modern savages do that we would not call cannibals.23 It is not necessary to speak at much length of the methods of hunting. They had bows and arrows, daggers of reindeer horn, spears tipped with flint or bone, and harpoons. Besides, they made a formidable club of the lower jaw-bone of the cave-bear with its canine tooth still left in its place. Fishing with nets is not supposed to have been known, Harpooning was probably their favorite way. M. G. DeMortillet thinks they fished as follows: They fastened a cord to the middle of a small splinter of bone. This was then baited, and when swallowed by the fish, was very certain to get caught in the body.24