Show MANS MAN'S OLDEST ART WORK Among the most interest interesting interesting- ng of th the the scientists wh who discoveries made by researches Into tn the devote their time to thousands age thousands of ot years year ages before recorded history begins begins are ar those which prove that even in those thos he h man hian such as dim and distant ages was had aesthetic yearnings One o othe of the most important of such discoveries has haa been made In France in the grotto grott Dor Dor- In of ot near dogne The discovery was communicated communicated b by to the Academic Academie des Sciences CapItan and Breuil and arid was wa accompanied by drawings of certain certai figures of animals engraved on th the it Its walls of the grotto on each side of length The drawings are in some som places quite deeply engraved in th the rock in others they are only scratched here and there is an nn effort to give a relief to the sketches It was at once evident to the discoverers discOverers that these remarkable rock drawings drawIngs drawIngs draw draw- with Ings were Identical in character those on fragments of bone and horn hornof horn hornof hornof of which casts may be seen in the BritIsh BritIsh British Brit Brit- Ish museum and rind that the same ing after atter truth In rendering the characteristics characteristics char char- of ot the animals was to b be seen in the grotto s-rotto of provIng proving proving ing the familiarity of the artist with the appearance of ot the animals themselves themselves them them- selves selves so that the artist was Vas contemporary contemporary contemporary with the animal anima he drew Now one of ot these animals being a hairy mammoth and the other other a reindeer i it itIs itis Is evident that when t those ose creatures creature roamed the hills and v valleys of ot south central France man was also there there- that Is to say pay in the o or Older Stone Age The precision with which the figures fig fig- ures are drawn say the discoverers allows us to recognize the species o othe of the animals so represented The he equine equine types are som sometimes large headed with short rt stiff manes sometimes manes sometimes with flowing manes mane and tails Some Sonic of the horses horses were were domestic animals One o of them has on Its back a covering covering-a a pa pa- horse horse cloth others cloth others ha have ve traces of bits and halters The bovine types are less frequent one of them has the character of c certain African antelopes such as the gnu while another another another an an- other Is much like our oxen of today The ru running reindeer Is identical In char character with those which are engraved engraved engraved en en- graved on bone and of ot the the same same pe pe- pe- pe nod The representations of ot the mammoth mammoth mam marn- moth sooth of ot which fourteen were exhibited to the Academic ie des Sciences are are very very characteristic S Some me are are m more re hairy than others With these rock drawings Tare lare strange signs engraved in the rock a a circle with the semblance of human feat leat features fea lea t tures reS es a d double uble outlined lozenge on the middle of ot the body of one of the horses others of like M l C shape semicircles etc all of ot mysterious and unknown significance cance Since the memorable day when when the first piece of engraved ved bone bope was discovered embedded In the stalagmite of the caverns once tenanted by human human hu hu- human hu- hu man beings there has been no discovery ery cry which has caused so great an Inter inter In Interest In- In ter terest st as this one In the stalagmite cavern of W We have in these rude and yet skilful efforts effort of of the human i race ce deeply Interesting evidence evidence that man once shared with mammoth and with reindeer the Arctic plains of southern France The The i Graphic |