46 



SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



tens of thousands of years earlier than the ancient 



Egyptians ! 



Our illustrations show a variety of drawings and 



carvings. It appears 

 probable that the 

 primitive intention of 

 ancient man in depict- 

 ing animals was "to 

 work magic" on those 

 which. he hunted. This 

 is the case at the pre- 

 sent day among many 

 " savage '' races. The 

 drawings of bisons in 

 Fig. 19 are from the 

 walls of the cavern of 



Fig. 16. — Reindeer engraving on schist, 

 small size (cavern of Laugerie basse). 



Font de Gaume, in the Dordogne, and are about 5 ft. long, 



partly engraved and scraped, partly outlined in black, and 



coloured. The body is often coloured in red, white and 



black, so as to give a true representation of the masses of 



hair and sur- _ 



face contours. -*<^ — :>v ■"-- s \\ 



A specially ~ 



well preserved 



painting of fV ,\/^v .w// 



this kind — 



from the 



cavern of 



Altamira — is 



shown in 



Fig. 18, where the colours of the original — black, 



red, and brown, and white are indicated by the varied 



shading. These drawings, like those of the mammoths 



figured in the last chapter, are found in the recesses of 



caverns where no daylight reaches them, and must have 



Fig. 17. — Rhinoceros in red outline (aj feet long), drawn 

 on the wall of the cavern of Font de Gaume. 



