452 
NATURE 
[SEPTEMBER 4, 19C2 
PALAOLITHIC FRESCOES AND MURAL 
ENGRAVINGS. 
TTENTION has already been drawn in NATuRE (vol. Ixv. 
p- 299) to the recent discovery of large mural decorations by 
Paleolithic artists, and as the subject is of such extraordinary 
interest we do not hesitate to give a further account of the 
more recent discoveries of like nature. 
MM. Capitan and Breuil presented at the meeting of the 
Paris Academy of Sciences of June 23 a communication 
describing some paintings on the wall of the cavern of Font-de- 
Gaume in Dordogne. Of the eighty figures which are painted 
in red ochre and manganese black on the walls of the cave, 
forty nine are of bisons ; all are engraved and painted, but some- 
times the surface of the rock has also been scraped; a thick 
layer of stalagmite has covered many of the designs. The original 
of the figure of the running bison that we reproduce has a length 
of I m. (394 in.) and a height of 60 cm. (254 in.) ; it is entirely 
painted in a brown colour with a red tint on the forehead. 
These are the first frescoes recorded for France, as the engraved 
designs from the cave of La Mouthe, published by M. Emile 
Riviere in 1895, were rarely and, even so, but partially coloured. 
M. Henri Moissan has analysed the colouring matters em- 
ployed by the Palzeolithic mural decorators, and finds that they 
are ochres composed of oxides of iron and manganese in variable 
proportions. 
At the meeting of the Academy on July 28, M. Emile 
Riviere drew a distinction between the true frescoes described by 
the former authors snd his own discoveries in the cave of La 
A 
ane 
Fic. 1.—Fre:co of a Bison, Font-de-Gaume. 
Mouthe, also in Dordogne. The latter are almost exclusively 
more or less deep engravings or shallow markings produced by 
scraping or scratching the rock. Two of the figures present 
some traces of paint; one of these represents a ruminant, 
perhaps Bos prises; the contour only of the hind limbis coloured 
a blackish red-brown, especially at the level of the joints and 
hoofs ; 
the same blackish-brown colour, extending in a line from the 
shoulder to the upper porticn of the thigh. The other design 
represents a kind of hut, not engraved by a simple line which 
indicates the contour as in the numerous animals represented 
upon the walls of La Mouthe, but by a scraping of the rock. 
Ochre (possibly mixed with manganese) has been applied super- 
ficially to portions of the scratches in such a manner that the 
colour is much less deep than in the former figure ; it is laid on 
in a series of bands approximately parallel and alternately clear 
and dark. This is the only known drawing of a habitation of 
primitive man. 
M. Riviere does not commit himself as to the contemporaneity, 
or otherwise, of the engravings of La Mouthe with the paintings 
of the Font-de-Gaume ; but he reasserts that the figures of La 
Mouthe are undeniably Paleolithic (Magdalenian), and, geo- 
logically speaking, of the Quaternary epoch. The prehistoric 
1 “Reproduction des figures paléolithiques peintes sur les parois de la 
trate a remarkable change experienced close inshore. 
the left flank of the animal is marked with ten spots of | 
| Teelin Head 70°, and Blacksod Point 72°. 
grotte de Font-de-Gaume (Dordogne).” By MM. Capitan et Breuil (Comptes | 
s Acad. Sci., Paris, t. cxxxiv. p. 1536); “* Sur les matiéres colorantes 
dogne).” By M. femile Riviére (¢.c., t. Cxxxv. Pp. 265)- 
NO. 1714, VOL. 66] 
ures de la grotte de Font-de-Gaume.” By M. Henri Moissan (é.c., p. | 
)); ‘* Les figurations préhistoriques de la grotte de La Mouthe (Dor- | 
artist who engraved them was the contemporary of the reindeer 
and of the mammoth the portraits of which he delineated. 
Ina recent number of 7 Anthropologie (t. xiii. Mai—Juin, 
1902), M. Emile Cartailhac gracefully acknowledges that he was 
wrong in doubting the genuineness of the pictographs of animals 
painted on the walls of the cave of Altamira in Spain. He gives 
two illustrations of these frescoes, one of which (Fig. 1, p. 351) 
contains a group of seventeen animals, drawn with spirit and 
with aconsiderable degree of accuracy. The Altamira artist, or 
artists, evidently belonged to the same ‘‘ school” and period as 
that of the Font-de-Gaume artists. A. C..H. 
SEA TEMPERATURE VARIATIONS ON THE 
BRITISH COASTS. 
THE Meteorological Office pilot chart for September contains 
very interesting information relating to the temperature of 
the sea water round the coasts of the United Kingdom in the 
month of June last. Over nearly the whole of the Atlantic 
between the 30th and soth parallels the temperature for the 
month was below the average, in many places the deficiency 
amounting to 5° and upwards. This fact is clearly shown on 
the general chart, but two small charts have been added to illus- 
Daily 
| records at a large number of coastguard stations and lightships 
disclose the prevalence of very cold water during a considerable 
part of the month, and a rapid increase of warmth towards the 
close. The extra sketches exhibit the mean results for June 
I to 24 and June 25 to 30 respectively. Along the western and 
southern coasts, many of the minimum values during the cold 
[Meary Sec Ze: 
June /-24, igo? Te 
Mean Sea ae <7 
JUNE 25-30, 1902, 8 
Fic. 
1.—Sea Temperature Variations on the British Coasts. 
period were as low as 48° to 52°, the lowest in several places 
occurring as late as the 15th of the month. Off Eastbourne, 
54° on the 8th and oth was the lowest June record in nineteen 
years. On the east of Britain and west of Scotland the minima 
were from 42° to 48°. Before the end of the month the west 
and south coasts were generally above 60°, and the east and 
north 55° to 60° and upwards. Up the north-western shores the 
temperatures were higher than in any other neighbourhood, the 
maxima being registered on the 28th or 29thas arule. Storno- 
way and Seafield touched 66°, Ballyglass 67°, Liscannor 68°, 
Even the Orkneys 
reached 60°, while Eastbourne did not pass 62°. Confirmation 
of these very high readings in the north-west is afforded by the 
records of ships well out in the offing, the observations in about 
554° N., 114° W., showing 50° on the Ist and 65° on the 
29th. 
Judging by the mean results for the two periods, the greatest 
change took place off Teelin Head, Donegal, where the closing 
days averaged 12° warmer than the previous part of the month. 
Blacksod, to the south, was 8°, Arran Island 7°, Seafield 5° and 
Minard 4° warmer, while Ballydonegan, at the south-west 
extremity of Ireland, showed no change. Northward from 
Teelin Head we find a rise of 8° at Stornoway, 7 at the 
Orkneys, and, curving southward down the coast of Caithness, 
6° at Cromarty. The warmth scarcely affected the Shetlands, 
where the increase was only 2°. Eastward past the north of 
Ireland the effect diminished rapidly, the rise at Sheephaven 
being 4°, at Poit Rush and Lamlash 3°, and at Ballantrae Tes 
For the warm period the Orkneys equalled and the Hebrides 
exceeded by 2° the result at Scilly, 58°. It must be remembered 
te 
(eg ee Mi in oh 
