672 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



some caves which exist near his own home at Santander. In 

 one of these, the cave of Altamira, he found the usual palaeo- 

 lithic debris, bones of extinct animals, and worked flints, among 

 them a laurel-leaf Solutrian point of coarse workmanship. But 

 in addition he perceived on the walls of the cave and even on 

 the roof a crowd of figures, some of life size, representing horses, 

 deer, bison, and other animals, faithfully depicted in a great 

 variety of attitudes. M. de Sautuola lost no time in bringing 

 this surprising discovery before the Archaeological Congress 

 of 1879, and published a full description in 1880. 1 It was 

 received with the most profound scepticism. Subsequently 

 M. L. Chiron observed outline drawings on the walls of a cave 

 in the Ardeche, known as the Chabot, and his discovery was 

 subsequently confirmed by Prof. Capitan. A few years later 

 (1895) similar drawings were found by M. Riviere in the cave of 

 La Mouthe, 2 and in the following year by M. Francois Daleau 

 in the cave of Pair-non-Pair in the Gironde. 3 In the Solutrian 

 layer of Pair-non-Pair, M. Daleau found the red oxide of iron 

 which had furnished the pigment for the paintings on the walls, 

 as well as the pestles of granite and quartzite which had been 

 used for pounding it up, and several scapulae daubed with red 

 which seemed to have served for palettes. 



These fresh discoveries did not produce conviction. When 

 M. Riviere submitted his results to the Archaeological Congress 

 in 1897, tne y met with much unfriendly criticism. Yet the 

 author had made a strong case ; for he pointed out that some 

 of the figures are covered by a fairly thick layer of stalactite ; 

 that the red clay which forms the floor of the cave extends above 

 the lower part of some of the drawings so as to conceal the 

 feet of some of the animals depicted ; and finally, that in their 

 style, boldness of characterisation, and even in their faults they 

 closely resemble the palaeolithic drawings which had long been 

 recognised on bone or ivory. 



In a sympathetic review, written in the following year, 

 M. Marcellin Boule 4 asserted that the arguments which had 



1 M. de Sautuola, Breves apuntes sob alcunos\objetos prehistoricos de la provincia 

 de Santander, Santander, 1880, 8vo, 28 pp. 4 plates. 



3 E. Riviere, "LaGrotte de La Mouthe," Bull. Soc. d'Ant/ir. Paris, 1897, 

 pp. 302, 484, 497. 



3 F. Daleau, " Les gravures sur rocher de la caverne de Pair-non-Pair," Actes 

 de la Soc. Archce. Bordeaux, 1897. 



4 M. Boule, "La grotte de La Mouthe," LAnthr. 1898, ix. p. 676. 



