86 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



But the Dordogne caves have furnished us with another 

 class of evidence of the highest importance in the shape of 

 a large series of representations of animals engraved on frag- 

 ments of bone, ivory, or stone, or occasionally carved out of 

 bone or reindeer horn\ It is needless to observe that the 

 animals pourtrayed are those with which the artists were them- 

 selves familiar. Similar drawings and carvings have since been 

 discovered in a number of other caves in France and Switzer- 

 land, " the whole now culminating in a collection of over 300 

 specimens illustrating the social life of the period, more 

 especially animals and hunting scenes, the former being pour- 

 trayed with singular fidelity and artistic skilP." In the series 

 of portraits the horse figures prominently, especially on the 

 storied reindeer horns and bones from La Madelaine, " all of 

 which unmistakably represent big-headed (cf. Figs. 41-2) 

 animals, with the exception of one or two which show a 

 small head, sharp muzzle, and long ears^." 



Mr Conrad Merk discovered in the Kesslerloch cave near 

 Schaff hausen a piece of reindeer horn engraved with the outline 

 of a horse, apparently small-headed : " the well-formed head — 

 rather long, with small ears — the upright mane, the graceful, 

 well-formed body, the elegant and light-formed feet, and 

 especially the remarkably thin tail, reaching nearly to the 

 ground, represent without doubt a young, well-bred animal." 

 "This Kesslerloch horse," remarks Dr Munro, "must have 

 been a very different animal from the clumsy, rough pony, with 

 its shaggy tail and big ugly-looking head, figured on bones and 

 horns from La Madelaine." 



These indications of the possible existence of at least two 

 kinds of horses during the Reindeer period have lately gained 

 further support by the discovery of engravings of a large size 

 and of coloured paintings of various animals, on the walls of some 

 newly explored caves in southern France, especially those of 

 Combarelles and Font-de-Gaune, Commune of Tayac, Dordogne, 

 and not far from the well-known station of Les Eyzies. 



1 Reliquiae Aquitanicae, p. 16, B. PI. ii. ; Munro, op. cit., p. 117. 



'- Munro, loc. cit., PI. i. Fig. 1. 



3 Eel. Aqiiit., B. PH. ii, vi-vii, is-x, xix-xx, xxiv, and xxx-xxxi. 



