MEN OF THE OLD STONE AGE 281 



to another limestone country tlireaded witli caves, the most famous of which 

 are Altamira and Castillo. 



Sheltering cliffs and grottoes in the front of these caverns were sought as 

 working places, shelters and communal homes by succeeding races of lower 

 and upper paljeolithic peoples during an enormousl}' long period of time, 

 estimated by geologists at o\er 50,000 years; but it is only in the upper 

 paUieolithic that the real development of the art of sculpture and painting 

 begins and may be followed step by step from the crudest stages up to a 

 high impressionistic stage in which wonderfully naturalistic effects are pro- 

 duced by the combination of three colors, black, ocher and red, in the so- 

 called "polychrome" paintings. Throughout all this region, a single cul- 

 ture existed; and probably a single race known as the "Cro-Magnon," tall 

 and large-brained people, nomadic in habit, living only by the chase. 



Accompanied by Professor Emile Cartailhac of the University of Tou- 

 louse, we first entered the great cavern of Xiaux, three hundred feet above a 

 small tributary of the Ariege near Tarascon. Advancing half a mile into 

 the interior we reached a splendid chamber in which the smooth, polished 

 walls were covered with black outlines of game animals drawn in oxide 

 of manganese mingled with grease, giving an imperishable lithographic 

 effect on the smooth limestone. Occasionally the animals are laid on in 

 solid masses of black, as in the case of that species so greatly admired by 

 paljeolithic man, the majestic bison depicted with superb crests, fine eyes 

 and muzzle most perfectly drawn. There are also stupid-looking horses, 

 with dull eyes very like the wild Przewalsky horses which can be seen in the 

 New York Zoological Park. Here too are the ibex, the chamois, some 

 spirited examples of the stag, but no reindeer or mammoth. 



The day following our visit to Niaux we traversed the extremely narrow 

 passages of Le Portel, often being obliged to crawl on hands and knees. In 

 this cavern the drawings are inferior in style to those of Niaux but red color 

 has been used with the black. The best drawing of bison was seen here, 

 the feet especially being thoroughly and finely drawn. 



Then our motor route carried us directly through the vast tunnel of Mas 

 d'Azil, traversed l)y the Arize River, where the last stages of upper palaeo- 

 lithic art are found representing the time just prior to the disappearance of 

 the great race of art-loving hunters before the coming of the first wave of 

 neolithic weavers and agriculturalists. The discovery of the already 

 famous cavern Tuc d'Audoubcrt had taken place only three days previous 

 to our visit, and the sons of the Comte de liegouen, who had made the dis- 

 covery, paddled us in an improvised boat into the entrance of this cave. 

 The chambers were brilliant with exquisite limestone stalactites. As the 

 Comte had discovered, favorable wall surfaces bore scupltures in very low 

 relief of all the characteristic animals of the upper palteolithic period, 

 namely, bison, horses, reindeer, stag and mammoth. It is in this cavern 



