Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1897-04-15

storehouse or cellar, never dreaming OF
the wonderful secrets that 1t contained.
Their curiosity was not great enough
to lead them to attempt an exploration
of the inner portions of the cavern,
which could be approached only
through low, narrow, sitting passage
buried in profound darkness and
choked with the accumulations OF ages.
Yet that passage really led to cham
bers where men had lived and left their
marks in an antiquity so remote that
Greece and Rome seem modern when
contrasted with 1t. There was con-
cealed proof of the existence OF man
SO many ages ago that nobody can DO
more than guess at the number OF mill
lenia which have elapsed since all
trace of those ancestors of ours was
lost.
4, The first discoveries of remarkable
things in the cave of La Mouthe were
made in 1895 by learned Frenchman,
M. Emile Riviere. The nature of the
soil. even in the outer part of the cav
ern, convinced him at once that he was
standing on ground which prehistoric
man had trod, and a little digging
showed that it had been the home OF
human beings during two entire geo.
logical epochs the Neolithic and the
Quartenary or Glacial. How great an
antiquity that implies we may readily
understand when we recollect that one
OF the best time-estimates of the Ola
cial epoch that we possess places the
end of it at $4,000 years ago. But it is
in the deeper and more concealed por-
lions of the cavern that M. Riviere and
his assistants, continuing their explor-
atoms during 1895, and during the last
year, have discovered the most won
derful and interesting traces of ancient
man. It required courage and resolu-
ton to penetrate the long, sitting pas
sage. through some parts Of which they
could with difdculty force their way
and which led inward and downward
to the strange chambers where the
most important discoveries were made.
Crawling on their faces. breaking off
the glittering stalactites and stalag-
mites that the slow dripping of lime
water during untold centuries had Gre
ated like crystal forest to obstruct
the way, they finally reached a dark
grotto, which is absolutely unique
among caverns, since it may be de-
scribed as a prehistoric picture gal
lery, on whose walls and roof are to
be seen drawings made with ochre and
engravings cut or scratched in the solid
rock, which are venerable beyond esti-
nation. In the outer parts of the cav
ern M. Riviere had found many ancient
hearths and the jumbled remains Of
wild beasts which have now become ex-
tinct, such as the great cave bear, the
cave hyena, and other creatures whose
huge jaws and long sharp teeth remain
to prove hoy fierce and terrible were
the enemies with which our pre-his-
toric. ancestors fought for the posses
sion of their underground homes. But
these things are overshadowed in in
terest by the discovery of the pictures
just referred to. These pictures prove
that even in those most historic days
man was instinctively an artist. en-
deavoring to represent and reproduce
the scenes and images of the world
around him. Working thus to please
their own eyes, with no thought of pos
terity, men have nevertheless left us
most important and graphic testimony.
touching, not only their own powers Of
intelligent observation, but also the
character Of the animals living in their
time. The lime water flowing down the
sides of the grotto has covered some of
the drawings with transparent deposit
of stalagmite. and many are more or