It is the above entire Eurasiatic forest and meadow fauna which survived all the climatic vicissitudes of Pleistocene time, and which alone remained in western Europe to the very close of the Upper Palæolithic culture, and into the period of the arrival of the Neolithic race.

The descent of the European and Asiatic alpine types of mammals to the lower hills and valleys is one of the most striking episodes of Magdalenian times. The argali sheep (Ovis argaloides) of western Asia had already appeared in the upper Danubian region during the Aurignacian; it is replaced in Magdalenian times by the ibex (Ibex priscus), and by the chamois, which descended along the northern slopes of the Alps and of the Pyrenees, and became numbered among the most highly favored subjects of the Magdalenian artists, especially in the mobile art of ivory and bone, and in the decoration of their spear throwers and bâtons de commandement. From the mountains also come the pikas or tailless hares (Lagomys pusillus), the alpine marmot (Arctomys marmotta), the alpine vole (Arvicola nivalis), and the alpine ptarmigan (Lagopus alpinus).

The Tundra Climate of Early Magdalenian Times

In the first cold moist period the full wave of arctic tundra life appeared in the whole region between the Alpine and Scandinavian glaciers during the renewed descent of the ice-fields; this was the tundra stage of early Magdalenian times, accompanying the Bühl advance. At the stations of Thaingen, Schweizersbild, Kastlhäng, and Niedernau, appears the musk-ox, together with the woolly mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, and the reindeer. The discovery of the grotto of Kastlhäng, a reindeer hunting station in the Altmühltale of Bavaria(6) fills out what has long been a gap in the geographic distribution of the early Magdalenian. The principal objects of the chase here were the reindeer, the wild horse, the arctic hare, and the ptarmigan; the royal stag is very rare, and the bison is wanting entirely; a strong arctic character is given to the fauna by the presence of the banded lemming, the arctic wolverene, and the arctic fox. From this region the musk-ox migrated far to the southwest, reaching the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. At the same time the arctic grouse, the whistling swan, and other northern birds entered the region of the Rhine and the Danube. But the surest indicators of a cold tundra climate prevailing during the period of the Bühl advance are the banded lemming (Myodes torquatus) and the Obi lemming (Myodes obensis), which are found in the same deposits with the arctic hare, the reindeer, and the woolly mammoth mixed with the implements of the early Magdalenian industry at the stations of Sirgenstein, Wildscheuer, and Ofnet along the upper and middle Danube. There also appear the ermine and the arctic wolverene; in fact, almost all the characteristic forms of tundra life except the polar bear, which only enters the northern tundras in the summer season.

The regions of the northern Alps bordering the great glaciers of the Bühl and Gschnitz advances, were barren stretches of rock, and the valleys and plateaus now free from ice became tundras, where the swamps alternated with patches of polar willows and stunted fir-trees, while other areas were covered with low, scrubby birches, or reindeer moss and lichens. The return of these hard conditions of life undoubtedly exerted a great influence both upon the physical and mental development of the Crô-Magnon race; it was at the very period when the life conditions in western Europe were most severe that the artistic development of these people began to revive. Forced to return to the shelters and grottos, which certainly were less frequented in Solutrean times, there was time for the development of the imagination and for its expression both in the mobile and parietal arts. There was a less vigorous development of the flint industry, and apparently a degeneration in physique and stature.

In Germany and northern Switzerland, on the headwaters of the Rhine and the Danube, the entrance and departure of the northern waves of life are recorded, especially in the grottos of Sirgenstein, Schussenquelle, Andernach, Schmiechenfels, and Propstfels. It would appear that the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros were not hunted in this region, for their remains are not preserved in any of the grottos or stations mingled with the middle or late Magdalenian cultures. On the other hand, we find the steppe horse, the kiang, the stag, and the reindeer very abundant indeed. The bison is absent, and wild cattle are very rare; so that this region is not typical of the mammalian life of Magdalenian times as found in Dordogne and in the Pyrenees.

The migration of the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros along the Pyrenees and westward into the Cantabrian Mountains, and the crossing of the Pyrenees by the reindeer, have already been described. In the mural frescos of Font-de-Gaume, Dordogne, it is noteworthy that the very latest engravings are those of the mammoth superposed on the fine polychromes which belong to the period of middle Magdalenian art.

The Dry Steppe Climate of Middle Magdalenian Times

The cold, dry period, when the full tide of steppe life reached western Europe, is of somewhat uncertain date; it probably began during the stage of the middle Magdalenian industry and continued into the late or high Magdalenian. There was certainly an environment attractive to these peculiar and very highly specialized mammals, which at the present time are neutral in color, swift of foot, inured to existence on very sparse vegetation, and adapted to extremes of heat and cold. Among the smaller steppe forms were the suslik or pouched marmot of the steppes (Spermophilus rufescens) and the steppe hamster (Cricetus phæus), also the Siberian vole (Arvicola gregalis); still more characteristic was the great jerboa (Alactaga jaculus), with long, springy hind legs, and the saiga antelope (Antilope saiga). With these mammals appeared the steppe grouse (Perdix cinerea), which is found along the Danube in late Magdalenian strata; another bird characteristic of the northern steppes and tundras is the 'woodcock owl' (Brachyotus palustris). Accompanying these mammals was undoubtedly the steppe horse (Equus przewalski), now restricted to the desert of Gobi; it is said to occur in the grottos of northern Switzerland.

It would appear that the saiga antelope may have reached eastern Europe in late Solutrean times, for its outline is said to be found in an engraving at Solutré. Widely spread over Europe was the giant Elasmothere; it would seem very unlikely that this animal was present in Magdalenian times, for it certainly would have attracted the attention of the artists. Neither have we any positive artistic records of the wild ass, or kiang, although certain of the drawings in the grottos of Niaux and Marsoulas, of the middle Magdalenian, also of Albarracin, in Spain, may be interpreted as representing this animal. Thus the Asiatic steppe and desert fauna, which in the region of the upper Rhine and Danube was restricted to two species of mammals in Aurignacian and Solutrean times, rises to nine or ten species in middle Magdalenian times, so that for the first time during the entire 'Reindeer Epoch' the steppe and tundra faunæ are equally balanced. There are also six or seven species of birds from the moors and uplands of central Asia. The bird life depicted in middle Magdalenian art includes the ptarmigan or grouse, the wild swan, geese, and ducks.

The present flora of the subarctic steppes in southeastern Russia and southwestern Siberia includes forests of pine, larch, birch, oak, alder, and willow, extending along the banks of the rivers and streams and interspersed with broad, low, grassy plains. There are many gradations between the low and high steppes;(7) the climate in summer is relatively warm, the temperature rising to 70°, while the average temperature in mid-winter hardly exceeds 30°; in general there is a strong contrast between the summer and winter seasons, the steppe lands in summer are practically rainless, so that the sand and dust rise with every wind. Thus, both in summer and winter sand and dust storms play an important rôle. The great snow-storms of the subarctic steppes are as destructive as those of the more northerly tundras and often result in great loss of life. Numerous discoveries tend to prove that similar conditions prevailed in western Europe during Magdalenian times. Thus at Châteauneuf-sur-Charente, a mingled tundra and steppe fauna is found containing the bones of many young animals which must have perished during a blizzard. It will be recalled that in this region is the station of Le Placard of late Solutrean and Magdalenian age. Near Würzburg, Bavaria, there is a fauna buried in the 'loess' containing twenty species of mammals of the tundras and steppes, together with the bison and the urus.(8)

Perhaps the strongest proof of the extension of cold, dry steppe conditions of climate is the migration of the saiga antelope (Saiga tartarica) into the Dordogne region, where it is represented both in carvings and engravings, and into other parts of southwestern France, where its fossil remains have been found in thirteen localities in association with a cold steppe fauna. In the same region have been found the remains of the musk-ox (Ovibos), one of the most distinctive members of the arctic fauna.

Human Races of Magdalenian Times

It appears that the Crô-Magnon race continued to prevail, yet anthropologists have long been divided in opinion as to the racial affinity of the men found in the Magdalenian industrial stage. The most famous burials are those of Laugerie Basse and Chancelade in Dordogne, each consisting of skeletons of inferior stature, not improbably belonging to women. They certainly represent a race somewhat different from the typical Crô-Magnons of Aurignacian times, as found at Crô-Magnon and in Grimaldi. The archæologist de Mortillet referred both these skeletons to a new race, the race de Laugerie. Schliz, who has most recently reviewed this subject, has, however, rightly treated all these people as Crô-Magnons of a modified type.

The Magdalenian skeleton of Laugerie Basse, found by Massénat in 1872, was resting on the back, with the limbs flexed, and with it was a necklace of pierced shells from the Mediterranean: the body apparently had been covered with a layer of Magdalenian implements. According to the length of the femur, the individual was 1.65 m., or 5 feet 1 inch in height; the bones were strong and compact; the skull was well arched, with a straight forehead and a cephalic index of 73.2 per cent.

The so-called Chancelade skeleton was found in the shelter of Raymonden in 1888, at a depth of 5 feet, and was also in a folded position, resting directly on the rock and covered with several layers of artifacts of the later Magdalenian culture; the limbs were so tightly flexed as to prove that they had been enveloped in bandages. This skeleton shows a well-arched skull, a high, wide forehead, and a dolichocephalic head form, but the limbs are comparatively small, the height not exceeding 1.50 m., or about 4 feet 7 inches; the upper arm and thigh are short, compact, and clumsy, and the femur is crooked with comparatively thick ends; this skeleton is generally classed with the Crô-Magnon race, but Klaatsch considers that it may belong to a distinct type. We cannot disregard, says Breuil,(9) the anatomical characters attributed by Testut to the man of Chancelade and its resemblances to the actual Eskimo type; this indication is in favor of a new element, arriving perhaps from Asiatic Siberia, but acquiring in western Europe the artistic culture realized and conserved in certain districts by the Aurignacian tribes and their derivatives. All of the Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian races, however, recall very forcibly the race of Crô-Magnon, which tends to prove that these transformations in culture were not made without a notable element of human continuity.

DISCOVERIES OF MAGDALENIAN AGE CHIEFLY ATTRIBUTED TO THE CRÔ-MAGNON RACE[AV]

Another Magdalenian burial is that at Sorde, Landes, in the grotto of Duruthy; this skeleton was discovered in 1872, buried at a depth of 7 feet, the body being ornamented with a necklace and a girdle of the teeth of the lion and of the bear, pierced and engraved. Seven skulls found in 1883 in the grotto of Placard, Charente, also belong to the Magdalenian. The skeleton discovered in 1894 in the grotto of Les Hôteaux, Ain, was buried at a depth of 6 feet beneath Magdalenian implements; the body, resting on the back, was covered with red ochre; the thigh-bones were inverted, indicating that the limbs had been dismembered before burial—a custom observed among certain savages.

These are the best preserved Magdalenian remains which have been discovered in France up to the present time. The matter of chief significance is the survival of modes of burial characteristic of the Crô-Magnons in Aurignacian times, with the use of color and of ornaments and with the body in some instances folded and bandaged.

In the great grotto of Placard, near Rochebertier, Charente, a new feature in the mode of interment has been discovered—the separation of the head from the body.[AW] The previous ceremonial burials, which began certainly among the Neanderthals in Mousterian times, always show the custom of burying the entire body; in the Upper Palæolithic there commences the new custom of imbedding the body in ochre or red coloring matter, and this obtains from the Aurignacian burials of Grimaldi to the Azilian burial of Mas d'Azil. The flexing of the limbs is probably also an Upper Palæolithic custom. It would appear as if the new ceremonial of Placard had been introduced in the earliest Magdalenian times, for in the lowest Magdalenian layers four skulls were found closely crowded together, with the top of the cranium turned downward; of other portions of the skeleton only a humerus and a femur were found. In an upper layer of the same industrial stage a woman's skull and jaw were found, surrounded by snail shells, many of them perforated. Still more singular is the occurrence in Magdalenian strata of this grotto of two separate skull-tops, fashioned by some sharp flint implement into bowls (Fig. 189).

Again, at Arcy-sur-Cure three skulls have been discovered placed closely together, and with them a flint knife in a layer superposed upon an Aurignacian industry. The Placard type of burial of the head only is shown again in the Azilian stage at Ofnet, Bavaria.

The uncertainty regarding the racial affinity of the men of Magdalenian culture has now been entirely removed by the discovery, in February, 1914, of two skeletons at Obercassel, near Bonn, the first instance of complete human skeletons of Quaternary age being found in Germany.(12) As reported by Verworn,(13) the skeletons lay little more than a yard apart; they were covered by great slabs of basalt, and lay in a deposit of loam deeply tinged with red. This red coloring matter, which extended completely over the skeletons and surrounding stones, indicates that it was a ceremonial burial similar to that practised by the Aurignacian Crô-Magnons. Along with the skeletons were found bones of animals and several specimens of finely carved bone, but no flint implements of any kind. The bone implements include a finely polished 'lissoir' of beautiful workmanship, placed beneath the head of one of the skeletons; the handle is carved into a small head of some animal resembling a marten; the sides show the notched decoration so typical of the French Magdalenian. The second specimen of carved bone is one of the small, flat, narrow horse-heads, engraved on both sides, such as are found at Laugerie Basse and in the Pyrenees. One of the skeletons is of a woman about twenty years of age, and, as is usual in young female skeletons, it exhibits the racial characters in a much less marked degree than the male skeleton, which belongs to a man of between forty and fifty years; the cephalic index is 70 per cent; the supraorbital ridges are well developed, and the orbits are distinctly rectangular; the limb bones indicate a body about 155 cm., or 5 feet 1 inch, in height.

In contrast to this more refined skull, the extremely broad and low face of the man is entirely disproportionate to the moderately broad forehead and well rounded skullcap; the breadth of the face is 153 mm. and exceeds the greatest width of the skull, which is only 144 mm. This is a markedly disharmonic type, the width of the face being due not only to the broad upper jaw but to the exceptional size and breadth of the cheek-bones. The skull is decidedly dolichocephalic, the cephalic index being 74 per cent; the brain capacity is about 1,500 c.cm.; the orbits are rectangular, and above them extends an unbroken supraorbital ridge, with a slight median frontal eminence; the nasal opening is relatively small; the lower jaw has a strongly marked chin; the crowns of the teeth have been worn down until the enamel has almost disappeared. While the muscular attachments indicate great bodily strength, the height does not exceed 5 feet 3 inches. As pronounced Crô-Magnon features, both of the Obercassel skulls show an unusually wide face; in both the profiles are straight and the root of the nose depressed, the nose is narrow, and the orbits are rectangular. But, observes Bonnet, the greatest width of these skulls is not found across the parietals, as in the typical Crô-Magnons, but just above the ear region, a much lower position; in this respect the Obercassel skulls resemble the skull of the Chancelade skeleton.

This very important discovery of two undoubted descendants of the Crô-Magnon race associated with bone implements of lower Magdalenian workmanship appears to prove conclusively that the Crô-Magnons were the art-loving race. The Obercassel skeletons confirm the evidence afforded by the burials in France that these people were of low stature; perhaps because of the severe climatic conditions of Magdalenian times they had lost the splendid physical proportions of the Crô-Magnons living along the Riviera in Aurignacian times. The skull also, while retaining all the pronounced Crô-Magnon characters, had undergone a modification in the point of greatest width.

In the reduction of the stature of the woman to 5 feet 1 inch and of the man to 5 feet 3 inches, and in the reduction of the brain capacity to 1,500 c.cm., we may be witnessing the result of exposure to very severe climatic conditions in a race which retained its fine physical and mental characteristics only under the more genial climatic conditions of the south.

The Four Industrial Phases of Magdalenian Culture

The industrial development belongs throughout to central and western Europe rather than to the Mediterranean. It is remarkable that it does not extend along the African coast, or even into Italy or southern Spain. It has been found to present four great steps or phases as follows:

The earliest types(14) of the incipient Magdalenian culture, or Proto-Magdalenian, are nowhere better represented than under the great shelter of Placard, in Charente, where the deep successive deposits compel a realization of the long period of time required for the evolution of the Magdalenian with its wonderful artistic culmination. Even prior to any discovery of the harpoon or of any example of the art of engraving comparable to the classic series of higher levels we find three levels of incipient Magdalenian industry at Placard. Similar local horizons, recognizable from the type of their javelin points (sagaies) and from their decorative motifs, are also found at Kesslerloch, Switzerland, and as far east as Poland. From Dordogne they extend into the Pyrenees and into the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain, but not farther south. There is thus a very primitive Magdalenian industry wide-spread over central and western Europe, either autochthonous or influenced from the east, but certainly not from the Mediterranean. It is only above these primitive horizons that layers are discovered with the rudimentary harpoons, and then with the perfected harpoons with single and double rows of barbs. It would appear as if the basins drained by the Dordogne and the Garonne were at once the most densely populated and also the centres from which industry, culture, and art spread to the east and to the west.

In the heart of the Dordogne region is the great rock shelter of La Madeleine, the type station of Magdalenian culture, and around it are no less than fifteen stations. This station, in which the lowest industrial layer (niveau inférieur) is subsequent to the Proto-Magdalenian phase and belongs to the early Magdalenian, was extensively excavated by Lartet and Christy(15) during the decade following its discovery, in 1865, and more recently by Peyrony and others. The industrial deposit is situated at the base of an overhanging limestone escarpment on the right bank of the Vézère River; it extends for a distance of 50 feet with an average thickness of 9 feet, the lowest or early Magdalenian levels reaching down below the present level of the Vézère. It is a significant fact that the river floods which from time to time occur here also occasionally drove out the flint workers in Magdalenian times. It indicates an unchanged topography and similar conditions of rainfall. We must picture this cliff fringed with a northern flora, these river banks as the haunt of bison and reindeer, and the site of a long, narrow camp of skin-covered shelters.

Among the numerous specimens of typical Magdalenian industry and art which have been found here may be mentioned a geode of quartzite, apparently used to contain water, and stone crucibles, usually of rounded form, adapted to the grinding up of mineral colors for tattooing or artistic purposes; one of these crucibles, showing traces of color, still remains. The finest among the art objects is the spirited engraving, on a section of ivory tusk, of the woolly mammoth charging; this is one of the most realistic pieces of Palæolithic engraving which has ever been found; there are indications that the artist used this relatively small piece of ivory for the representation of three mammoths; but in the reproduction (Fig. 199) all the lines are eliminated except those belonging to the single charging mammoth; we observe especially the elevation of the head and the tail, also the remarkably lifelike action of the limbs and body.

Very numerous industrial levels are discovered in eight or ten overlying hearths, which are, however, divided into three main levels, as follows:

In the Early Magdalenian we note the invention of the harpoon; its first crude form is that of a short, straight point of bone, deeply grooved on one face, the ridges and notches along one edge being the only indications of what later develop into the recurved barbed points of the typical harpoon. As noted above, this invention was destined to exert a very strong influence on the habits of these people. Large fish undoubtedly were very abundant in all the rivers at that time, and this new means of obtaining an abundant food supply probably diverted the Crô-Magnons in part from the more ardent and dangerous pursuit of the larger kinds of game. The discovery soon spread, and among a number of localities where prototypes of the harpoon are found may be mentioned Placard, in Charente; Laugerie Basse, in Dordogne; Mas d'Azil, on the Arize; and Altamira, in northern Spain. In the early Magdalenian also a great variety of flint drills or borers are developed in connection with the fashioning of bone, including the 'parrot-beak' type, or recurved flint. The microlithic flints, exclusively designed for fine and delicate artistic work, are more abundant than in any previous stage, and were used to shape and finish the bone implements which chiefly distinguish the Magdalenian culture. Other implements which enable us to recognize the early Magdalenian culture layers are javelin points of bone or reindeer-horn with oblique bases, small staves of reindeer-horn or ivory, oval plates of bone frequently decorated with engraved designs, and slender, finely finished needles.

The Middle Magdalenian implements were more widely distributed than the early types, the most characteristic weapon being the harpoon with a well-defined single row of barbs (Breuil,(16) Schmidt(17)). According to Breuil, this single-rowed harpoon is rare in the lower layers but abundant in the upper layers of middle Magdalenian times; with it occur examples of the single-rowed harpoon with swallow-tail base. Other implements of this stage are the bone javelin points with cleft base, small bone staves richly decorated, also numerous needles, finer and more slender than those of the early Magdalenian. It is very interesting to note that there are no distinctive inventions in the flint industry, which shows no important advances, although microlithic flints are still more abundant than before. For industrial purposes scrapers continue to be very abundant, as well as borers for the perforation of bone implements. The middle Magdalenian industry is best represented in the deposits of central and southern France, at Raymonden, Bruniquel, Laugerie Basse, Gourdan, Mas d'Azil, and Teyjat.

The chief weapon of Late Magdalenian times is the harpoon with the double row of barbs, which is found at all the principal discovery sites extending from stations in southwestern and southern France far to the east. Besides the double-rowed harpoon, the cylindrical chisel of reindeer-horn frequently occurs, often pointed at the end and with a small curve at the side; this, like other bone implements, was richly decorated with engraving. This late Magdalenian level is distinguished everywhere by the rich decoration of all the bone implements and weapons, as well as of the 'bâtons de commandement.' The quantity of bone needles, more numerous in this stage than ever before, attests the greater refinement of finish in the preparation of clothing.

This was the culminating point both in Magdalenian industry and art, and probably also in the morale and modes of living. Characteristic types of this late Magdalenian culture are found at La Madeleine, Les Eyzies, and Teyjat, and extend into the northern Pyrenees, at Lourdes, Gourdan, and Mas d'Azil. Their easterly geographical distribution will be described on a later page. The microlithic flints now reach their culminating point; to the small bladed flakes with blunted backs are added little feather-shaped flint blades, and still others with oblique ends, which begin to suggest the geometric forms of the succeeding Tardenoisian industry. Among the flint borers we notice a prevalent type with a stout central point, also the so-called 'parrot-beak' borer; for the preparation of skins, scrapers are made, as before, of thin flakes, slightly retouched at both ends to give a rounded or rectangular form.

Following the late or high Magdalenian stage is a period of decline in industry. In southern France(18) both flint and bone implements show unmistakable indications of the approach either of the succeeding Tardenoisian or Azilian stage. In the Pyrenees both the flints and the great polishers of deer-horn begin to resemble those which occur in the post-Magdalenian levels. This industrial stage corresponds broadly with the period of decline in art, and with the change both in the industrial habits and in the artistic spirit of the Crô-Magnons.

The divisions of the Magdalenian are, therefore, as follows:

Flint and Bone Industry

Through the four successive stages of development which we have already traced (p. 382) there are perceived certain general tendencies and characteristics which clearly separate the Magdalenian from the preceding Solutrean culture.

Compared with Solutrean times, when the art of flint working reached its high-water mark, the Magdalenian palæoliths show a marked degeneracy in technique, having neither the symmetry of form nor the finely chipped surfaces which distinguish the Solutrean types; indeed, they do not even equal the grooved marginal retouch of the best Aurignacian work. The Magdalenian retouch shows no influence of the Solutrean; it is even more blunt and marginal than the late Aurignacian. In compensation for this decadence in the art of retouch, the Crô-Magnons now show extraordinary skill in producing long, narrow, thin flakes of flint, struck off the nucleus with a single blow; these 'blades,' which are very numerous, are often not retouched at all; occasionally a few hasty touches are used to attain a rounded or oblique end; in other cases a very limited marginal chipping along the sides or the development of an elongated pedicle (soie) produces very effective implements for graving and sculptural work.

For the art of engraving perfect burins, burin-grattoirs, and burins doubles were rapidly made from these thin flakes; also burins with oblique terminal edge and with the 'parrot-beak' end. For industrial purposes some of the flints were denticulated around the border, doubtless for the preparation of fibres and of thin strips of leather for the attachment of clothing to the body and for binding of the flint and bone lance-heads to wooden shafts. Extremely fine perçoirs have been found adapted to perforating the bone needles; the grattoir, single or double, was also fashioned out of these flakes, and the nucleus of the flint was used as a hammer. Hammers of simple rounded stones are also found.

But the notable feature of Magdalenian industry is the extensive and unprecedented use of bone, horn, and ivory. From the antlers of the reindeer are early developed the sagaies or javelin points of varying size, usually ornamented along the sides and with several forms of attachment to the wooden shaft, either forked, bevelled, or rounded. The ornamentation consists of engraved elongate lines or beaded lines, and of deep grooves perhaps intended for the insertion of poisonous fluids or the outlet of blood.

Of all the Magdalenian weapons the most characteristic is the harpoon, the chief fishing implement, which now appears for the first time marked by the invention of the barb or point retroverted in such a manner as to hold its place in the flesh. The barb does not suddenly appear like an inventive mutation, but it very slowly evolves as its usefulness is demonstrated in practice. The shaft is very rarely perforated at the base for the attachment of a line; it is cylindrical in form, adapted to the capture of the large fish of the streams. That a barbed weapon was also used in the chase seems to be indicated by drawings in the grotto of Niaux and lines engraved on the teeth of the bear, but these drawings indicate the form of an arrow rather than of a harpoon. The length varies from two to fifteen inches. The harpoons may have been projected by means of the so-called propulseurs or dart-throwers, which resemble implements so employed by the Eskimo and Australians of to-day. These dart-throwers are often beautifully carved, as in the case of one found at Mas d'Azil, ornamented with a fine relief of the ibex.