562 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
coveries at La Mouthe led to Félix Regnault’s successful search in 
1897 for mural art at Marsoulas. In 1902, through a subvention of 
the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Cartailhac and 
Breuil began their study of the cavern which opens on an affluent 
of the Salat. About the close of the Magdalenian epoch, the ante- 
rior part of the Marsoulas cavern was filled by a fall of earth and 
stone, thus accounting for the complete absence of neolithic culture 
and the good preservation of the wall decorations. 
The principal figures number fourteen and comprise six horses, 
six bison, one wild goat, and one deer. Of the more than one 
hundred partial figures, a majority represent the bison. Here, 
as elsewhere, are found problematical figures that might be con- 
strued as caricatures of man. The details of a fine polychrome 
bison, painted over a partially effaced series of figures in black, are 
exactly similar to those in the polychrome frescoes of Altamira and 
Font-de-Gaume. 
One curious figure of a bison (pl. 12, fig. a) is done in a peculiar 
technique. The head was first engraved, then painted reddish brown, 
the horns remaining without color. The entire body was filled in 
with dots or small spots carefully arranged, as if done with the point 
of a brush. At Marsoulas there are at least three distinct layers of 
wall decorations, probably dating from the Aurignacian, Solutréan, 
and lower Magdalenian epochs. 
The large caverne des Forges at Niaux (Ariége) is about 4 kilo- 
meters from Tarascon. On account of its size Niaux has for a long 
time been looked upon as a sort of show place. In 1886 Doctor Gar- 
rigou noted the presence of drawings on the walls of this cavern. 
They were rediscovered in 1906. This is another one of the caverns 
being explored by Cartailhac and Breuil, at the expense of the Aca- 
démie des Inscriptions and by authority of the Administration des 
Eaux et Foréts. 
The narrow entrance is 100 meters above the Vic-de-Sos, a tributary 
of the Ariége. The cavern has a total length of 1,100 meters. The 
best specimens of mural art, including fine drawings and engravings, 
are in the rotunda at a distance of 772 meters from the entrance. 
They are grouped on the ceiling as well as the sides. Figures of the 
bison, thirty in number, predominate. The horse, wild goat, and 
stag are also represented. The drawings are outlines in a single 
color, usually black, in which style of art Niaux excels. The medium 
is presumably a mixture of charcoal and oxide of manganese, to 
which grease or oil may have been added. It was applied with a 
brush. Nearly half the animals are represented as having arrows 
(pl. 12, fig. 6) sticking in their sides. It is suggested that these may 
be votive figures symbolizing the hunter’s hopes for success in the 
chase. Both drawings and engravings are wonderfully well pre- 
