Prehistoric Horses of Europe. 81 



the artists, the originals of these two drawings must have 

 been very different animals. 



At the outset some doubts were expressed with regard to 

 the authenticity of these rock-engravings, but M. Eiviere 

 has successfully dispelled all misgivings on this score by 

 showing, among other evidence, that the figures were partly 

 covered by the debris accumulated in the cave : '' Cependant 

 lis se prolongeaient aussi sous I'argile rouge qui constitue le 

 sol de la grotte, a partir d'une certaine distance de I'entree, 

 et dont le niveau superieur depasse generalement I'extremite 

 des pattes des animaux graves" {Bulletins, vol. viii., 4th 

 Series, p. 314). M. Eiviere has also shown that the cave 

 had been occupied by man both in the Palaeolithic and 

 Neolithic periods, the two strata being separated " par une 

 stalagmite plus ou moins epaisse." Among the ISTeolithic 

 debris were fragments of coarse pottery, and bones of various 

 animals, including the horse, stag, and a small-sized ox. 



On the 16th September 1901, MM. Capitan and Breuil 

 submitted a joint note to the Paris Academy of Sciences on 

 "A New Cave with Wall Engravings of the Palaeolithic 

 Epoch." This was followed, a week later (23rd September), 

 by a second note by the same explorers on " A New Cave 

 with Painted Wall Figures of the Palaeolithic Epoch." A 

 noteworthy distinction in the art illustrations of these 

 two caves is that one (Combarelles) has its walls adorned, 

 almost exclusively, with engravings cut more or less deeply, 

 and the other (Font-de-Gaune) with paintings in ochre and 

 black, or sometimes only in one colour, forming real sil- 

 houettes of the animals thus depicted. 



The total number of figures in the painted cave (Font-de- 

 Gaune) is 77 : aurochs, 49 ; indeterminate animals, 11 ; rein- 

 deer, 4 ; stag, 1 ; Equidae, 2 ; antelopes, 3 ; mammoth, 2 ; 

 :geometrical ornaments, 3 ; scalariform signs, 2. As, however, 

 these paintings are not yet published, we can form no opinion 

 on the special characters of the two Equidae included in the 

 above list. On the other hand, some of the engravin*>s in 

 the cave of Combarelles have been carefully copied and 

 published (Academie de Sciences de Paris, Dec. 9, 1901 ; 

 Bevue de VEcole d' Anthropologic, Jan. 1902) ; and as they seem 



VOL. XV. G 



