Vol. 70.] PALEOLITHIC ENOEATTNG ON A BONE. 101 



deposit, from which he has collected teeth of the mammoth and 

 the woolly rhinoceros. 



The bone is a piece of rib, 8*5 cms. in length, from which the 

 greater part of the flat inner face and the thin anterior border have 

 been Haked away. A remnant of the fiat inner face is pierced by a 

 small vascular foramen near the posterior border. The specimen 

 cannot be identified with certainty, but it agrees well in shape with 

 part of an anterior rib of the existing Mongolian wild horse 

 {JEquus przewalskii). It terminates at one end in a sharp oblique 

 cut, while the other end is irregularly broken. The engraving 

 represents only the head and forequarters of a horse in side view, 

 but it covers the greater part of the outer convex face of the bone, 

 which has not been artificially smoothed. The head points towards 

 the cut end, while the mane fringes the broken thin anterior 

 border. The outline is bold, and executed in short strokes, mostly 

 about 5 or 6 mm. in length, by an instrument which has left a 

 groove with a V-shaped cross-section. The head is well-shaped, 

 with an indication of the mouth in one stroke, but no clear mark 

 of the nostrils. The eye is represented by two nearly parallel 

 strokes, of which the upper is stronger than the lower ; and its 

 anterior border is completed by two slight indentations. Two thick 

 strokes in front of the mane are evidently intended for the ears. 

 The mane is indicated by a close series of finer vertical lines : these 

 are nearly parallel ; but sometimes they cut each other, and some- 

 times merge together by the accidental flaking of the intervening 

 surface of the bone. The longest of these fine lines are on the top 

 of the head, where they extend farthest downwards. A coarse 

 groove marking the line of the back begins just below the hinder 

 part of the mane, and ends posteriorly in some engraving of an 

 uncertain nature. An equally coarse antero-posteriorly directed 

 groove below this on the flank cannot be interpreted; while another 

 shorter groove on the neck, close to its lower margin immediately 

 behind the head, is also curious. 



As already mentioned, this new specimen is remarkably similar 

 in design to that previously discovered in the Creswell Caves ; but 

 in the latter the incised lines are much finer and more numerous, 

 and the flat surface on which they are engraved has been first 

 carefully rubbed smooth. Both agree with the majority of the 

 engravings on bone from the French caves, in representing a hog- 

 maned horse with a relatively large head. 



Dtscussiox. 



The Chairman (Dr. H. H. Bemrose) said that the communi- 

 cation was of great interest to all. He was familiar with all the 

 Derbyshire caves, including the celebrated Creswell Cave, in which 

 the original engraved bone had been discovered by Prof. W. Boyd 

 Dawkins. 



Sir Henry Ho worth believed that the engraved bone was of 

 Palaeolithic age. The artistic faculty was characteristic only of 



