contemporaneously with the Reindeer, in France. 327 



the exact outline, traced with a firm hand, of the hind-quarters 

 of a large herbivorous animal. The slenderness of the tail, the 

 small flexure of the knees, and especially the very forward posi- 

 tion of the indication of the male sex, show that this is not a 

 horse : we rather recognize in it a bovine form; and the sudden 

 elevation of the dorsal line towards the withers would appear to 

 lead us to the Aurochs. Unfortunately, the interruption of the 

 design by the fracture of the specimen comes exactly at the 

 point where the tufted mane, characteristic of the subgenus 

 Bison, ought to commence. 



In a second and more widely dilated palm, we find another 

 evidently bovine form, judging from the knees and the small 

 hoofs placed behind the cloven hoof. In this, the thicker tail, 

 the more horizontal direction of the line of the back, and the 

 presence of a smooth pendant dewlap between the anterior legs 

 indicate a tendency towards the true ox [Bos primigenius ?) ; but 

 a fracture has caused the loss of the region of the head to which 

 the horns were attached ; and the artist, in order to utilize the 

 divisions of the palmature, has given the animal a distorted atti- 

 tude, which injures the general effect of the design. 



A third palmature, in which the engraved design has been 

 preserved nearly entire, exhibits an animal of which the head is 

 armed with two horns rising at first vertically and then bending 

 back towards their point ; behind these horns we see a less dis- 

 tinct indication of the ears, and beneath the chin that of a tuft 

 of hair or beard — peculiarities which would lead us to regard it 

 as a female Ibex, if they were not contradicted by the peculiar 

 form of the face and by a swelling behind the ears. In this 

 figure, moreover, the designer, with no apparent necessity for 

 so doing, has bent up the hinder limbs beneath the belly of the 

 animal in such a manner that the distinctly cloven hoofs touch 

 the abdomen. 



Among the sculptured pieces obtained from this same locality 

 of Laugerie-Basse, we shall mention a rounded staff" made of the 

 stem of a reindeer- horn, and terminated at one end in a lance- 

 point with a recurrent lateral hook. Was this a tool, a weapon, 

 or a sign of authority ? We cannot tell. Immediately above the 

 hook, we see sculptured in half-relief upon three of its faces a 

 horse's head, with the ears laid down, and rather long for the 

 species, although not sufficiently so to lead one to attribute 

 this figure to the ass. In front, and still upon the continuity 

 of the staff", there is a second head, with a slender muzzle, and 

 armed with branching horns. The basilar antlers are sculptured 

 in front upon the horizontal prolongation of the staff", whilst the 

 main stem and the palmature are thrown backwards : the slender 

 form of the head, which shows no indication of a muffle, the 



