ETHNOLOGY. 337 



Of all these drawings tlie most iinj)oitant, and also the most rare, 

 since, at present there is but one specimen, is a representation of the 

 mammoth, to which I have already alluded. It was found at the Made- 

 laine in 1804. The execution of the head is remarkably correct. (See 

 Fig. VJ.) Since then the Marquis de Vibraye has discovered at Lower 

 Laugerie a fragment of a commander's baton, with the head of a mam- 

 moth sculptured upon it. These are the only representations of the 

 animal transmitted to us by the artists of the Vezere, but they are suffi- 

 cient to prove that it was not yet extinct. 



Fig. 22. — Combat of reindeers. 



Eepresentations of fish are quite common, and, with a single exception, 

 that of an eel or lamprey, (if it is not a serpent,) they generally resem- 

 ble the salmon in form. M. Elie Massenat has discovered at Lower 

 Laugerie, upon a fragment of the scapula of an ox, a rude drawing of a 

 fishing scene. It represents a man in the act of harpooning an aquatic 

 animal. The latter, although it has the form of a fish, is so much larger 

 than the man that it has been supposed to be one of the cetacea, probably 

 a whale, and that the artist, in consequence, must have found bis way to 

 the Gulf of Gascogne. I am not disposed to admit this interpretation. 

 It is hardly possible that the men of that time were sufiQciently expert 

 navigators to venture upon the ocean to harj)Oon the w^hale. It is said 

 the tail and back suggest the form of a cetaceous nnimal ; but may it 

 not rather be a porpoise than a whale ? Porpoises sonietimes sport in 

 the Gironde, and I saw once, in my childhood, one of these animals car- 

 ried by a flood even into the Dordogne, where it was stranded between 

 Libourne and Castillon. It was killed by fishermen with boat-hooks, 

 and exhibited from village to village. If, as is probable, the tide rose 

 higher in those days than now, and particularly if the Dordogne was 

 wider and deeper, it is conceivable tliat a porpoise might ascend tlie 

 river high enough to come within reach of the harpoons of our troglo- 

 dytes, and so unusual an event would naturally inspire the enthusiasm 



of an artist — in this case very unskillful. 



22 s 



