178 



NATURE 



[June 25, 1908 



blue clay, this is apparently not the magma in which 

 crystallisation originally took place, for the diamonds 

 may have been forced into the clay by volcanic 

 agencies. Actual blocks of one of the original rocks 

 in which crystallisation took place have been found in 

 blue clay. These blocks consisted of an eclogite con- 

 taining large quantities of iron, and small diamonds 

 were found, thus suggesting that such was the original 

 mode of formation of the diamond. F. M. P. 



PICTOGRAPHS OF ARROWS IN FRENCH 

 CA VES. 



THE mural paintings and engravings of the 

 Pyrenean caves is the subject of a series of 

 memoirs by Prof. E. Cartailhac and I'.Vbbe H. Breuil, 

 now appearing in I'AnthropoJogie. In the current 

 number is an account of the " Grotte des Forges " at 

 Niaux, Ariege. The cave is a narrow gallery more than 

 1400 m. in length, with several short branches; at 

 611 m. from the entrance a broad lateral gallery runs 

 due south for a distance of i6o m., and terminates in 

 a rotunda, the walls of which are decorated with 

 bisons, horses, deer, wild goats, and groups of signs. 

 There are no designs of animals in the first half of the 

 main gallery, and only five at long intervals in the 

 second. The authors write with enthusiasm concern- 

 ing the rotunda. The paintings possess to a supreme 



Bison in the Salon noir of Niaux transfixed by three arrows. 



degree the st3'le of the period, and represent the 

 same animals that were familiar to the Paleeolithic 

 artists of the Pyrenees, the bisons being in the great 

 majority. The drawings, which represent animals in 

 profile, are drawn with a brush in black pigment with 

 a sure and exact touch, and the characteristic traits 

 of the animals are conscientiously delineated. The 

 best polychrome frescoes are to be seen in the caves at 

 Altamira, in Spain, but Niaux is unexcelled in its 

 line work. The black pigment consisted of a mix- 

 ture of charcoal and oxide of manganese worked up 

 with grease. 



Perhaps the most important new feature of the 

 Niaux pictographs is the representation of arrows 

 sticking into many of the animals, thus conclusively 

 proving the existence of the bow and arrow at this 

 early period. The accompanying figure represents a 

 large bison with four arrows, the two lateral being 

 red in colour. Some of the animals are marked by 

 a spot, which may be intended to represent a wound. 



A lamp placed on the ground in a corner of the 

 rotunda or " salon noir " revealed, by chance, a series 

 of engravings on the firm clay soil of the cave. The 

 same animals that were painted on the walls were also 

 engraved on the ground. The drawings were of the 

 same style, and some of the animals were pierced 

 with arrows. But it was only on the ground that 



NO. 2017, VOL. 78] 



designs of fish occurred, one of which, 30 cm. in 

 length, is readily recognised as a trout. Even some 

 impressions of the naked feet of the artists were still 

 visible. Of definite objects very little has as yet been 

 discovered, only one small flint scraper of charac- 

 teristic Pateolithic type, and fragments of bones, pieces 

 of yellow ochre, and ashes. To execute the painting 

 the Cave-men must have had artificial light of some 

 sort. 



The sign-pictographs are obscure in their signi- 

 ficance. Some look like feathers with long quills ; 

 possibly they are arrows, in which case the arrows 

 were feathered. There are several straight or slightly 

 curved broad lines, from near the end of which a 

 prominence is depicted ; these appear to represent 

 stone implements let into a thick stick. Other sticks 

 or clubs are straight or slightly curved; these the 

 authors regard as. boomerangs. Other markings con- 

 sist of lines or groups of spots, some of a red colour 

 arranged in a circle surrounding a central spot. 

 These recall the markings on the coloured pebbles of 

 the famous cave of Mas d'Azil. 



These discoveries by our French colleagues are 

 shedding welcome light upon the life of the Paleolithic 

 cave-dwellers of western Europe, but doubtless more 

 information will come to hand when the investiga- 

 tion of the wonderful French caves is completed. 



A. C. H. 



NOTES. 

 Sir George Darwin, K.C.B., F.R.S., has been elected 

 a foreign member of the Amsterdam Academy of Sciences. 



The " Societa italiana delle Scienze (delta del XL.)," 

 of which Prof. Cannizzaro is president, has elected Sir 

 William Ramsay as a foreign fellow (Socio straniero). 



The annual conversazione of the Royal Society of Arts 

 will be held at the Natural History Museum, South 

 Kensington, on Thursday next, July 2. 



We learn from the British Medical Journal that Prof. 

 Grassi, whose name is well known in the scientific world 

 in connection with research on malaria and other subjects, 

 has been created a Senator of the kingdom of Italy. 



The annual meeting of the Victoria Institute will be 

 held at Burlington House on Wednesday, July 15. The 

 chair will be taken by the president, the Earl of Halsbury, 

 F.R.S., and an address will be given by Mr. E. Walter 

 Maunder. 



The council of the Royal Society has awarded the 

 Mackinnon studentships for the year 1908 as follows : — 

 one in physics to Mr. J. A. Crowther, of St. John's 

 College, Cambridge, for an investigation of the passage 

 through matter of the /3 rays from radio-active substances ; 

 one in biology to Mr. D. Thoday, of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge, for a research into the physiological condition of 

 starvation in plants and its relation to the responsiveness 

 of protoplasm to stimulation, especially to stimuli affect- 

 ing respiration. 



Mr. a. G. Bagshawe, the director of the Sleeping 

 Sickness Bureau, who can be addressed care of the Royal 

 Society, Burlington House, London, W., desires it to be 

 known that he will be glad to receive reprints of any 

 papers dealing with sleeping sickness, trypanosomiasis, and 

 cognate subjects, and, indeed, any information relating to 

 the worlc of the bureau. 



Reuter's Agency learns that a fresh commission is 

 being organised to proceed to East Africa to study sleep- 

 ing siclcness, its object being to continue the work carried 



