The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25
CANOE OF PREHISTORIC TIMES.

Strangely Carved Boat Discovered
In Cave In Central France.
London Standard
In a letter addressed to the secretary
of the French Academy of Sciences the
well-known anthropologist, M. e.
Riviere, announces that In the course
OF mission conf1ded to him by the
ministry of public instruction he has
discovered in the department of the
Dordogne prehistoric cave Of which
he has explored 127 meters. It's walls
are covered with drawings of animals
These drawings are cut deep in the
rock, some Of them being buried under
stalagmites. This fact is, according
to M. Riviere, most important, as it
constitutes an undeniable proof of the
great antiquity of the drawing in ques-
tion.
The caves of the Dordogne have for
some forty years been noted for their
relics of very early race of men, They
were first explored by M Lartet Of
France, and our fellow-countryman
Mr.. Christy, whose fine collection is
now in the British museum, but the
one recently examined by M. Riviere
appears to be Of exceptional size and
interest. The special interest-if, in
deed, 1t be not unique-of M. Riviere's
discovery is that he has found some
kind Of incised ornamentation upon the
actual walls of a cave. These carvings
are sometimes covered by q film Of stall
agmite, which shows them to be very
far from modern; the patterns, how
eN er, of the engravings will be yet more
satisfactory proof of their antiquity. for
the style of ornamentation practiced by
this folk is not SO familiar to experts
that they can recognize it without diff
Guilty. Both the objects depicted and
the material employed throw consider
able light upon the condition of west
ern Europe at this early age The ant
iers OF reindeer are commonly used for
TOOLS and ornaments, and the bones of
this animal abound in the debris on the
floors. Obviously, it must then have
been as common in Perigord as it now
Is in the extreme north of Asia or
America
This fact, taking into consideration
the present range of the animal. and
remembering the habits Of the people
indicates that in those DAYS central
France cannot have had a climate
more genial than that of northern Nor
way at the present era. In addition to
these wild animals the red deer the
Irish elk, the wild horse, the glutton
and, possibly, the rhinoceros are de-
ptcted, but the most interesting sketch
of all is fairly accurate and rather
spirited outline of a mammoth scratch
sometimes are actually sculptured as
If to form handles or knives or tools
or some kind, but in other cases. as in
the last named, they are incised on
the fiat or curved surface of a bone or
of an antler Remains of the cave
lion and cave bear have been found.
though not abundantly, together with
those of the hyena, the ibex, the
chamois and the saiga antelope. which
now inha.bit the plains of the Volga
and southern Siberia. These men of
the Dordogne had probably attained
to a stage of civilization comparable
with that of the Eskimos before thew
were brought In contact with Euro
peans, and there Is so strong a family
likeness in the handiwork of the two
that Prof. Boyd Dawkins, who has
paid much attention to the subject, Is
of opinion that the Eskimos are the
nearest approach to descendants and
representatives of this long-lost race.
AS comparatively few bones of the
Dordogne folk have been identified
with certainty up to the present time,
we are hardly in a position to say