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[[underlined]] Chapter XIX. [[/underlined]] 415. freshwater mussel (pl. 72, fig. 1). [superscript]] (372) [[/superscript]] This fragment, which still re- ---------------- [[superscript]] (372) [[/superscript]] To judge from the size and curvature of some of the pieces of shell that we found here, the mussel must have grown to a considerably larger size when the Shih Hsiang culture flourished than it does now, at least locally. A similar phenomenon occurs in the case of the ancient oyster shells brought up from deep borings some miles inland from the present coastline of the Gulf of Chihli, near Tientsin. In the case of these, the cause is of course the former greater salinity of the waters of the Gulf, in days before it was so nearly shut off from the sea; but that explanation will not apply to the Fen River basin. ---------------- tained its natural nacreous inner surface, measured some 19 [[underlined]] cm. [[/underlined]] in length by 4.5 [[underlined]] cm. [[/underlined]] in width. One end was rounded, as if to fit the curve of the index finger (on the assumption that the object was not hafted but held directly in the hand). [[superscript]] (373) [[/superscript]] The opposite extremity was broken off oblique- ---------------- [[superscript]] (373) [[/superscript]] That it thus fitted the curve of the finger I found by actual experiment. ---------------- ly; and careful search in the adjacent soil failed to reveal it. When complete, however, the object was apparently serrated all along one side; for the surviving fragment was sharply, though roughly and irregularly, notched along what was left of its cutting-edge and for a distance of about 1 [[underlined]] cm. [[/underlined]] past the curve that led toward the rounded extremity just mentioned (see illustration). The total remaining saw-toothed portion of the implement measured approximately 5 [[underlined]] cm. [[/underlined]] in length, and the serrations evidently extended for an unknown (though necessarily short) distance beyond the break. This object, it seemed to me, was probably the surviving portion of a sickle-blade, used for cutting off the heads of seed-bearing grasses, whether cultivated millet or some wild species like the [[underlined]] Setaria lutescens [[/underlined]] already mentioned. [[strikethrough]] (page 411.) [[/strikethrough]] For as previously stated (page 51), and see also pl. 11, fig. 2, for comparison), saw-toothed sickles, at first of shell and perhaps of flint or chert flakes, later of metal, seem once to
