266 PALiEONTOLOGY. 



hollow key of moderate size. It cannot be doubted that it was a call- 

 whistle iu common use amoug these tribes of hunters, for up to the 

 present we have observed four examples of it, — three of which are 

 lajade of phalanges of the reindeer and the fourth of a phalanx of the 

 •chamois. 



At Laugerie-Basse, moreover, thanks to the intelligent superinten- 

 dence and minute precautions of M. A. Laganne, who was charged 

 with the direction of our excavations, we have obtained many bits 

 of reindeer's horn, which despite the alterations made by time, still 

 preserve, in whole or in part, very distinct representations of animal 

 forms. Some are simply traced in outline upon the branch or ter- 

 minal expansion of the frontal prolongations of the reindeer ; others 

 are truly sculptured either in bas-relief, or even in round emboss- 

 ment, or full relief upon the shanks of the same animal, prepared for 

 that effect. 



One of these branches, from which an old breakage has obliterated 

 a part of the design, still gives us the exact outlines of the hind 

 quarters of a large herbivorous animal, traced by a sure hand. The 

 thinness of the tail, the slight curvature of the hams, and especially 

 the very advanced position of the sign of the male sex, do not permit 

 us to consider it meant for a horse ; we should rather recognize it as 

 a bovine form, and the abrupt rise of the line of the back near the 

 shoulder would seem to point to the ure-ox. Unfortunately, the in- 

 terruption of the design by the fracture of the piece occurs just at 

 the point where the tufted hair or characteristic bristles of the bison 

 family should commence. 



On a second branch of greater size, we discover another form, evi- 

 dently bovine in its character, to judge by the hams and the spurs 

 placed behind the divided hoof. 



In this, the thicker tail, the greater horizontality of the line of the 

 back, and a smooth dewlap hanging between the forelegs, indicate a 

 nearer approach towards the ox properly so called (Query — Bos pri- 

 migenius?) A fracture has once more removed the region of the 

 head to which the horns were attached, and the artist — in order to 

 make use of the divisions of the antlers — must have given to the animal 

 a twisted attitude, which injures the general effect of the sketch. A 

 third branch, on which the graving is preserved a little more per- 

 fectly, shows us an animal whose head is armed with two horns rising 

 vertically at first, and then bending back towards their point. Behind 



