4 6 



SECRETS OF EARTH AND SEA 



tens of thousands of years 

 Egyptians ! 



Our illustrations show a 



earlier than the ancient 



Fig. 16. — Reindeer engraving on schist, 

 small size (cavern of Laugerie basse). 



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 

 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. 

 A specially 

 well preserved 

 painting of 

 this kind — 

 from the 

 cavern o f 

 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 



«tf 



Fig. 17. — Rhinoceros in red outline {z\ feet long), drawn 

 on the wall of the cavern of Font de Gaume. 



