552 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
Coual (Lot). The necessities of men dwelling in dark caverns would 
be likely to lead to the invention of artificial light, which ight made 
it possible for them to depict the frescoes and engravings on the walls 
of their abodes. 
The past ten years have witnessed a succession of remarkable dis- 
coveries by Messieurs Capitan, Breuil, Bourrinet, Ampoulange, and 
Peyrony, in the caverns of Les Combarelles, Font-de-Gaume, Bernifal, 
Teyjat, La Gréze, and La Calévie. 
The Combarelles cavern has a total length of 234 meters, is from 
1 to 2 meters wide, and high enough to admit of walking upright for 
most of the way. The engravings begin at a point about 118 meters 
from the entrance, and occupy both walls for a distance of 100 meters. 
G co 
lic. 6.—Engraving of a mammoth. Cavern of Les Combarelles (Dordogne). Second 
phase. 3. After Capitan and Breuil. 
Some of the figures are deeply incised, others are mere scratches. In 
some, the effect is heightened by the application of a dark coloring 
matter (oxide of manganese). Portions of the walls are covered by 
a coating of stalactite thick enough in places completely to hide 
engravings, while in others the more deeply incised figures are still 
visible. On areas devoid of incrustations, the figures are fresh and 
distinct. The artist sometimes had recourse to champlevé; sometimes 
natural prominences were utilized to add relief to the figures. Of 
the 109 engravings of various animals on the walls at Les Combarelles 
there are some forty equine figures, occurring either singly or in 
groups, and fourteen of the mammoth. One of the latter is repro- 
duced in figure 6. The mural engravings belong precisely to the 
