PREHISTORIC ART. 



397 



theory in every country inhabited by Paleolithic man. If a greater 

 number of art works had been found, or if the distribution had been 

 more extensive, the general proposition would be better established. 

 We are to remember that in our search for the evidences of prehistoric 



Fig. 48. 



WHALE (?) ENGRAVED ON BONE. 



Laugerie Basse. 



Collection, Massenat. 5 natural size. 



man we are but groping in the dark; we have no, or but few, indica- 

 tions as to the locality of the tra(!es of his existence, and so we may 

 have missed those evidences greatest in number and most important 

 in bearing. 



Fig. 49. 



SEAL ENGRAVED ON BEAR'S TOOTH. 



Cavern of Sordes (Landes.) 



Collection, Chaplain-Dnparc. NattiTal size. 



Fig. 63 is another specimen of artistic essay, an engraving on bone 

 from Laugerie Basse, in the collection of M. Gustave Marty, Toulouse. 

 It is a fragment of shoulder blade, which we have seen was a favorite 

 material with the i)rehistoric artist. Its surface 

 is large and flat, and was convenient for the en- 

 graver. The artist has made divers essays, and 

 has represented the legs of the horse in various 

 positions and attitudes, always in action, possi- 

 bly on the trot. Not being satisfied with them 

 one way, he has represented them in another, 

 men suggest evidence of the artistic longing of him who may have 

 _^,,^ ^ - ~i^_^^^ been an engraver and de- 



signer of renown, whose 

 reputation may have re- 

 sounded along the banks 

 of the Yezere, u]} and 

 down the Pyrenees, in much the same way that artists from these 

 localities, possibly his descendants, are figuring in the world of art in 

 the expositions and museums of to-day? 



Fig. 50. 



MUSK-OX. 



J^ natural size. 



May not this speci- 



