Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 87 



As early as 1875 slight traces of this style of decoration had 

 come to light in the cave of Altamira, near Santander, in N.E. 

 Spain. Later on better examples were revealed in the caves of 

 Chabot (Gard), La Mouth e (Dordogne), and Pair-non-Pair 

 (Gironde), in all of which figures of equine animals occurred 

 along with those of other animals regarded as characteristic gf 

 the Palaeolithic period. 



The cave of La Mouthe, explored with signal success by 

 M. E. Riviere, extends for about 260 metres, and on the walls 

 of its inner recess are drawings clearly representing the bison, 

 reindeer, goat, mammoth, and two Equidae. These horses were 

 cut on a panel 128 m. from the entrance. One represents an 

 animal with a small head, slender neck, and well-formed fore- 

 quarters, " but the posterior part is heavy and altogether out of 

 proportion," while the other had a stout neck, a long head 

 directed almost vertically and a hairy chin. "Whatever may 

 have been the defects of the artists, the originals of these 

 two drawings must have been very different animals." Yet 

 one cannot help wondering whether it may not be that it 

 is the fore-part and not the hind-quarters of the first animal 

 which is out of proportion. 



The cave had been occupied by man both in the Palaeolithic 

 and Neolithic periods, the two strata being separated by a layer 

 of stalagmite of varying thickness. The Neolithic debris con- 

 tained bones of horse, stag, a small-sized ox and other animals. 



But two caves surpassing in importance those hitherto 

 explored were discovered by MM. Capitan and Breuil in 1901, 

 at Combarelles and Font-de-Gaune. It is noteworthy that 

 whilst the former is adorned with engravings cut more or less 

 deeply by Palaeolithic man, the other is decorated with 

 paintings in ochre. and black, or sometimes only in one colour, 

 forming real silhouettes of the animals thus depicted. The 

 painted figures at Font-de-Gaune number 77, comprising forty- 

 nine aurochs, eleven indeterminate animals, four reindeer, one 

 stag, two mammoths, three antelopes, two horses, three 

 geometrical and two scalariform signs. 



The cave at Combarelles extends for 234 m. The engravings 

 begin about 118 m. from the entrance, and are continued on 



