14 SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



The " printed-off," or " unrolled," or " developed " 

 picture given in Fig. 3 is an exact reproduction of a copy 

 of the cast made and preserved in the Museum of 

 National Antiquities at St. Germain, for which I am 

 indebted to my friend M. Salomon Reinach, the dis- 

 tinguished archaeologist who is the director of that 

 museum. It is reproduced here, a little larger than half 

 the size of the original, as are the representations of the 

 carved cylinder itself (Figs. 1 and 2). In Fig. 4 we have 

 my attempt to restore the damaged portions of the 

 design and to present it as it was when the Palaeolithic 

 man completed it some 20,000 years ago. 



I will return to the question of the correctness of this 

 restoration, but before doing so I wish to mention some 

 extremely interesting points as to the probable use of the 

 cylinder of stag's antler and the purpose of the carving 

 around its axis. In the first place, this and a few other 

 of the pieces of carving of the post-Glacial period were 

 certainly the work of highly gifted and practised artists. It 

 is obvious that this work is far superior both in conception 

 and execution to the more or less clever, often grotesque, 

 carvings and paintings made by modern savages or simple 

 pastoral folk. There is no reason to suppose that the 

 Cromagnards, or men of the post-Glacial or Reindeer 

 period of West Europe, differed from modern races in 

 being universally gifted with artistic capacity. This en- 

 graving of three stags is almost certainly the work of 

 a man who belonged to a family or guild of picture- 

 makers who had cultivated such work for centuries and 

 handed it on from master to apprentice. This design is 

 probably one which had been perfected by many succeed- 

 ing observers and draughtsmen. Its sureness of line and 

 vivacity of movement are not the outcome of the sudden 

 inspiration of an untutored savage, but are the result of 

 the growth, cultivation, and development of artistic per- 



