358 MAN AS THE COTEMPOEARY OF THE MAMMOTH 



profuse crinosity of the neck and liead. The bison or aurochs therefore flourislied 

 here in companionship with man, the horse, and the reindeer. Another figure, 

 which unfortunately is mutilated, but is disting-uished by the fineness of its hair, 

 seems to point to another of the bovine species diS'ering from the bison; nor is 

 this a matter of surprise, since the testimony of the bones is to the same efix^ct. 

 An animal of the goat kind, probably the steinbock, is not wanting, while some 

 other figures of horned and graminivorous species must be acknowledged to be 

 deficient in point of distinctness. 



The most remarkable relic, however, is the representation of the primeval 

 elephant, a real mammoth, on a plate of iv'ory, which formed part of a tusk of 

 large dimensions. In ]\Iay, 1846, M. Lartet, in company with l)r. Falconer and 

 Verneuil, both well-known naturalists, caused excavations to be made in the 

 stratum of the cavern of the Madelaine. ''At the moment of our arrival," says 

 Lartet, " the laborers disinterred five fragments of a rather thick plate of ivory, 

 whicli must have been detached, ages before, from a large tusk. After having 

 fitted the pieces together 1a' their corresponding edges, I pointed out to Dr. Fal- 

 coner numerous scratches and lines somewhat deeply engraved, which, on collo- 

 cation, constituted an animal figure. The practiced eye of the distinguished 

 paleontologist, better versed than any one else in the study of elephantine ani- 

 mals, at once recognized the head of an elephant. He then directed our atten- 

 tion to the other parts of the bod}^, and especially to certain tufted lines in the 

 region of the neck, denoting the characteristic mane of the mammoth or elephant 

 of the glacial era. It is generally known that this peculiarity which marks 

 the arctic habitat of the aninial, was verified, in the year 171' 9, by Adams, a 

 member of the Academy of St. Petersburg, in the carcass of such an elephant, 

 found imbedded in ice near the mouth of the Lena. A l)unch of its hair is still 

 to be seen in the geological collection of the Garden of Plants at Paris. 



" I have shown the piece in question to competent observers, such as Milne 



Edwards, de Quatrefages, Desno^'ers Longpdrier, and Franks, director of the 



London Antiquarian Collection ; and the latter has, by means of the pencil, 



• rendered the characteristic lines more distinct in the plaster cast whicli had been 



taken of the object. 



'' This new fact only tends to strengthen the conviction already acquired of 

 the existence of man at the same time with the mammoth and the other large 

 graminivorous and carnivorous beasts which, according to the geologists, lived 

 in the first section of the quaternary period. The truth of this historical fact 

 results from so many concurrent observations and from material facts of such plain 

 import, that even the most prejudiced cannot fail to recognize its entire validity, 

 if they Vvill permit themselves to see and judge with ordinary conscientiousness." 



The elephant, thickly clad with hair on the neck, forehead, and breast, is seen 

 in profile and at its full length in the act of striding forward. At first it was 

 not riglitly known what was to be made of a tuft of hair and certain marks which are 

 seen to the left in advance of the line which forms the profile of the forehead. 

 Repeated and closer scrutiny of the fragment has enabled us, in the end, to 

 recognize therein the eye, the outline of the forehead, together with the proboscis 

 of a second elephant, which is advancing close by the side of the first. Some 

 lines on the leg would lead us to conjecture a third elephant, which followed on 

 the part of the plate which is l)roken off". The drawing of the figures is exe- 

 cuted with a free and bold hand, and the characteristic movement of the elephant, 

 which raises sinndtaneously the legs of the same side, is well preserved. 



Another memorial of the art of tins ancient epoch is an elephant's head carved 

 on a reindeer's horn, which was also discovered in Perigord by the Marqius de 

 Vibraye. These two relics are the more interesting as furnishing the proof that 

 man actually existed as the cotemporary of the mammoth or gigantic elephant, a 

 fact which has been so often and so obstinately contested. But since the locali- 

 ties where these objects of primitive art have been found unquestionably belong 



