Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-04-12

| seers. Like the Arena of Aries, the Square
| House at Mines and the Baths Of Julian in
| Paris. they are to be proclaimed to be ma
| tional monuments" AS such they cease to
| be private property, although existing on
| private property; and the French govern
ment becomes their guardian, just as 1t Is
the guardian OF the Louvre. the Sainte-
Chapelle or Notre Dame de Paris From
| the scientific point of view the French
thropologist Moissan Tin two long communi-
cations to the Academy of Sciences) and
NM. Captain and Breuil lin two other COM
munications to the Paris School Of An
thropology) have described these first per-
manent art exhibitions of the world in de-
tail; they have photographed or traced
every picture and design, and where the
latter were cut deep into the rock they took
papier-mache impressions of them, all of
which are soon to be exhibited to Parsians
under the novel title already mentioned.
Worn by Water.
The caves are of the long, narrow kind
worn in the rock by running water follow
ing the route of fractures and assures
caused by volcanic upheavals and earln-
quake settings of still earlier days. The
largest, that of Combarelles. is $50 yards
long, six feet wide and between five and six
feet high, narrow winding tunnel ending
in a falr-SZed room, this latter evidently
enlarged by the hand Of prehistoric man.
The cave of Font-de-Gaume about one
mile distanO is 80 yards long. between III
teen ana twenty tSet Wide ana ABOUT el2n-
teen feet high.
In such cayerns as these prehistoric man
lived during the extraordinary interglacial
epoch. There are no yeStiges of mans eX-
iStence during the tertiary period Of the
formation of the earth's surface; neverthe-
less, from the beginning of the quaternary
period he is found everywhere. He must
have made the conquest of Asia, Europe
and Africa during the pliocene (or latter
division of the tertiary period. In the pre-
ceding mioceue division he Travelled in a
terrestrial paradise, without limit or change
of climate 1t was the most flourishing
epoch in the history of the organic world.
All Europe was deeply penetrated by long
arms of the sea; great fresh-water lakes
alternated with maritime basins; the eli
mate was like that of Madeira or southern
Japan today, and vegetation, thus favored,
offered a marvellous spectacle. Immense
troops of great quadrupeds roamed Europe,
Water was more abundant than now, or at
least more in evidence: and the atmosphere
was charged with warm humidity. The
mountains We're still young, and higher
than they are today; and they played the
part of immense 'condensers." receiving
immense masses of snow their tops,
which IN time became converted into sla-
ciers.
Whatever other causes modified the eli
mate Of the earth are still matters of dis
pute. At the beginning of the quaternary
period. however. the great glaciers had al
ready begun their work on the climate.
Little by little the habitable parts Of the
eartn Decafue Dy Ine glaciers.
Where are now the Baltic sea and the coun-
tries bordering on it there was the terrible
glacier of the Scandinavian Alps. which
descended, fan-shaped, to the middle of Eu-
rope. The glacier Of the Rhone piled 500
yards Of ice above the actual level of Lake
Geneva and spread as far as Lyons in
France.
Pushed Out the Bear.
1t was now that man took to caverns; and
it is the caverns that have preserved the
first vestiges of him that anthropoiogy pos
sesses He was already ousting the great
cave bear from his lair. The climate Of
Europe was no longer that Of terrestrial
paradise. Man was beginning to stay more
and more In the house. so to speak, and.
staying in he had to kill the time He
turned his attention to art.
This age" 0he age Of the reindeer), says
Emile Cartailhac, the anthropologist, lis
the artistic period par excellence of all pre-
historic times. In the others that came
after 1t the taste for self-and home |
adornment and the decorative arts Is al |
ways found In proportion with the natural /!
development Of agriculture and industry,
real and solid riches. Here 1t is all other
wise: 1t Is an unexpected Towering Of art |
without precedent. For the first time man |
ings seen around him with astonishing |
aesthetic touch, not negiecting his own |
proper image. IT Is an astounding event in 1
the history Of humanity"
In the cavern of Combarefes the picture
exhibition does not begin until you have
passed lis yards up the long tunnel This /
outer length was given up to sef-defense. 1
Here and there, at intervals. the tunnel is /
enlarged to form a waiting place for it's de- |
tenders or an ambush for its invaders. 1
When they commence. however, the pic /
lures occupy both wallis of the tunnel for /
over 100 yards. AS they follow each other /
close together and cover the entire space
from Aoor to ceiling this means 300 yards
OF mural decorations between i've and six