In Wildest Africa -^ 



of Southern Europe, \vc make the acquaintance of the 

 long-haired prototypes of the hving elephants of to-day. 

 These animals were the most coveted big game in Europe. 

 Clearly recognisable sketches of reindeer tell us that a 

 climate like that of the northern steppes prevailed at the 

 time ; others of horses show that the wild horse was then 

 to be found in Europe ; those of the aurochs prove the 

 existence of that animal. There is a remarkably close 

 resemblance between the style of all these drawings and 

 that of the rude sketches made by the Esquimaux of our 

 own day. Some such Esquimaux sketches of animals on 

 walrus tusks, at the most a hundred years old, are to be 

 found in the P)erlin Ethnographical Museum. Interesting, 

 too, are the sketches of giraffes from the hands of ancient 

 Egyptian artists. They show us that the artist of those 

 davs in drawino- animals allowed a loose rein to his lancy 

 and imagination. Thousands of years must separate th.ese 

 representations of animals from the sketches of Asiatic 

 wild life which Sven Hedin discovered at Togri-sai-Tale 

 near Lob-nor. They are scratched on bright green slate, 

 and depict yaks, wild asses and tigers, and the hunting 

 of them with bow and arrow. They appear to be of the 

 same kind as the animal-sketches made by the South 

 African lUishmen. discovered by hVitsch in the year 1863. 

 These cave pictures show us various members ot the fauna 

 of Cape Colony, which has already liecn to so great an 

 extent exterminated. During the period ot the Middle 

 Ages a more j)erfect style of repres(Miting animals was 

 gradually evolved, but even about the year 1720 we lind 

 representations that are inaccurate to an incredible extent, 



96 



