EUROPEAN CAVES 
ability, and the general nature of his 
everyday life. The caves, on the other 
hand, served him mainly as galleries for 
a remarkable series of paintings, engrav- 
ings and carvings, which in a measure 
reveal to us his mental attitude toward 
life. The caves, it must be understood, 
were exceedingly dark and damp, ordi- 
narily unfit for habitation, except pos- 
sibly as temporary retreats during the 
y mr 
ee 
1 
Entrance to the cavern of Tuc d’Audoubert near Saint-Girons, France. 
AND EARLY MAN 239 
Cavern near Montréjeau, France, and 
likewise the Altamira Cave, near Sant- 
ander, Spain, appear to have been occu- 
pied for protracted periods although in 
both cases only very close to the en- 
trance. On the other hand, some of the 
shelters such as Cap Blanc, near Les 
Eyzies, France, have preserved, mainly 
through accident, a fine series of high 
relief sculptures. But as a_ general 
A stream still issues 
from this cave, which is the most beautiful and in a way the most interesting of all the known 
Pyrenean haunts of the ancient artist who has left here not only mural engravings but also models 
in clay and even his footprints 
hard and the 
shelter walls, having been exposed for 
thousands of years to the weathering 
winters, contrariwise, 
elements, could not have preserved for 
us either paintings or delicate engravings 
that may have been made upon them. 
There are several somewhat qualifying 
exceptions to these sweeping statements 
however. For 
instance, the Gargas 
thing the camp-sites are in large half- 
open shelters, usually facing the sun, 
while the entrances to the painted caves 
face in any direction and for the most 
part are very small and inconspicuous. 
At Castillo only there is the perfect com- 
bination — a large sunny grotto which 
was occupied periodically throughout 
most of palolithic times and which 
