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figures in the caves are within reach of 
the hand. In other words, the caves 
have undergone no particular changes 
since the artist did his work. Not a few 
of the paintings, and especially the finer 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
in these caves? It is unsafe to move 
ten steps in them without a light. It is 
true that a very few stone basins have 
been found that may have served pur- 
poses similar to the Eskimo lamp, or the 
A weathered indentation in the limestone cliff such as served to shelter early man. 
down the Vézére Valley from the point of its junction with the Beune Valley, at Les Eyzies, France. 
Several caves are to be found in the distant cliff and on one of its high sheltered terraces there is 
the interesting ruin of a church dating from the early Christian era 
engravings seem as fresh as if done yester- 
day. In the Pindal cave is the repre- 
sentation of a fish incised on the wall and 
the visitor who examines it closely would 
swear that he could make a line exactly 
like it with a lead pencil, but with Pro- 
fessors Breuil and Obermaier standing 
behind him he says nothing. And how 
did paleolithic man manage to get about 
Looking 
artist’s right-hand man may have car- 
ried a torch; but there are no signs of 
such torches or of carbonization on the 
walls in the vicinity of the paintings, 
although smoke spots made by modern 
lamps and candles held too close are 
abundant enough. The conviction that 
this cave art is not so old as some would 
have us believe seems irresistible. 
