140 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



or no call for combined action. Hence a Stone Age is one wliere 

 traces of it were least likely to occur. But the attention of arclise- 

 -ologists and geologists had not been long directed to the extremely 

 rude implements of the drift and the ancient caves, when the dis- 

 closures of the latter showed that the art of palseolithic man was by 

 no means limited to operations in flint and stone. Contemporary 

 specimens of carvings in bone and ivory have been preserved, securely 

 sealed up in the cave-breccia, including daggers and lances of deers- 

 horn and maces or batons of the same material, all decorated with 

 more or less artistic skill. Other remains of the ancient workmen 

 still more strikingly illustrate their aesthetic taste, and at the same 

 time serve to throw lighb on the prevalence of right or left-handed- 

 ness among the skilled artificers of Palaeolithic or Neolithic Ages ; 

 as well as on the more important question of the intellectual develop- 

 ment of primitive man. "Within the last twenty years repeated dis- 

 coveries in ancient cave-dwellings and retreats of Europe, and especi- 

 ally in those of southern France, have familiarized us with numerous 

 specimens of the work of skilled draftsmen of Palaeolithic Europe. 

 The evidence they afford of the dexterity which these cave-men dis- 

 played in sketching and engraving on slate, horn, and ivory has been 

 very widely recognized ; but my attention was first directed to the 

 possible clue which they might furnish to the prevalent use of one or 

 other hand in that remote age, by what, on further investigation, 

 proved to be an error in the reproduction of the famous drawing of 

 the Mammoth on a plate of its own ivory, found in the Madelaine 

 Cave, in the Yalley of the Y^z^re. In M. Louis Figuier's "L'Homme 

 Primitif," for example, which might be assumed as a reliable author- 

 ity in reference to the illustrative examples of French palaeolithic 

 art, the La Madelaine Cave sketch is incorrectly reproduced as a left- 

 hand drawing ; that is to say, the mammoth is looking to the right. 

 The direction of an unpremeditated profile sketch is a nearly unerring 

 test of right or left-handedness. The skilled artist can, no doubt, 

 execute a right or left profile at will ; but in the ordinary use of the 

 pencil a profile drawing, if done by a right-handed draftsman, will 

 be represented looking to the left ; as, if it is the work of a left- 

 handed draftsman, it will certainly look to the right. 



The' drawings of the ancient cave-men of Europe have naturally 

 attracted much attention. They are referable, beyond all dispute, 

 ito a period of long duration, when the mammoth and woolly rhinoc- 



