ENGRAVINGS OF GROTTO LA MOUTHE. 441 



JL have the honor of presenting to the Anthropological Society of 

 Paris reproductions of some of the new carvings discovered b}' nie 

 in the grotto of La Moiithe since my last communication, reserving 

 still others for subsequent presentation. 



I shall not here review the circumstances of the discover}' nor the 

 appearance of the cave when, on June 11, 1895, 1 penetrated the cham- 

 bers previously unknown; neither shall I speak of the extensive 

 labors undertaken at that time, and which I have since pursued each 

 year in one or more fields of research; nor shall I describe the hearths 

 of different epochs, Paleolithic and Neolithic, which I have discovered 

 and in great part explored from the entrance to a certain distance 

 inward. 



Finally, I shall not enter into details concerning the fauna and the 

 contemporaneous industry' of each of those periods, whose dates ma}^ 

 be determined with certainty. This would only needless!}" repeat 

 what I have said on several occasions here at the Institute, at the 

 French Association, and elsewhere.'' I limit myself to the presenta- 

 tion of the drawings which I submit to you, and to a summary descrip- 

 tion of the carvings of which they are faithful reproductions. 



These drawings are at present only seven '' in number, but there are 

 several other carvings actually discovered, which lack of time has 

 prevented me from stamping, tracing, or molding. 



In the study of La Mouthe, I have simultaneously occupied myself 

 with the exploration of hearths, the discovery of pictures, and super- 

 intending the excavation of the clay which fills the cave almost to the 

 roof, and with greater thickness the further we penetrate. 



The engravings of La Mouthe form, so to speak, a certain number 

 of panels " on the walls of the grotto. The seven drawings of which 1 

 here present as faithful reproductions as possible, belong to three dif- 

 ferent panels: one about 97 meters from the entrance of the cavern, the 

 second at 113 meters, the third at 128 meters. Two of the drawings 

 belong to the first panel, one representing a bison, the other a Ijovine 

 animal with some traces of another species. Three drawings are taken 

 from the second panel and represent a reindeer, an ibex, and a mam- 

 moth. The figures from the third panel are of two horse-like animals. 



(1) The species of animal represented by the first drawing (fig. 1) 

 can not be in doubt, thanks to its enormous hump (its dimensions are 

 indeed, nuich exaggerated) and to the beard which it carries under 

 the lower jaw. It is a veritable bison {Bos priscus). The creature is 



" Academy of Sciences, October, 1894; June and July, 1895; April, 1897; Septem- 

 ber, 1901. French Association for the Advancement of Science, 1897. Anthropo- 

 logical Society of Paris, June 3, 1897; November 4 and 18, 1897; November, 1899. 



** Five of them are the reproductii n of tracings executed by me on October 1, 1900; 

 the other two were made by M. H. Breuil on his second visit to the grotto of La 

 Mouthe. 



'These panels occupy, a surface of several meters, and are separated from each 

 other by more or less considerable intervals. 



