Rocky Ford enterprise., 1915-09-03

earshot of Les Eyzies series of stations
which taken together furnish data human his
tory practically from Acheulian times to the
present day. These stations begin with the old
obscured shelter of La Micoque. include the par
TALLY ruined shelters of Upper and Lower Lau
gerie another ledgesheter that served old-time
brigands as a rendezvous and also fortress
to defy the English In 14l0: still another ledge
marked by ruins of what looks like some old
baronial chateau: and end up finally with the
more or less well-kept houses of the modern
peasant. These houses often stand several
meters of ancient rec-bearing debris and seem
to cling in an infantile sort of way to the
hanging cliff in spite of its cold. damp nature.
Some distance up the Vezere. at the Rock of st.
Christopher. where the last houses have been re-
moved there over four meters of debris
dating from neolithic to present time and the
adjacent cliff is marked by several series of par
alel holes. cut for the insertion of ceiling beams
precisely find them in own Southwest
Some of these holes are high up the clin. but
others are below the surface of the accumulated
debris, which is itself below the high.water mark
OF the river. With all this evidence suggestive
of continuous occupation, II is not to be wondered
at that some students profess to among the
local inhabitants number of individuals that
resemble the physical type of paleolithic man.
A visit TO the painted caves is the experience
of a lifetime: but while II is adventure bound
to excite more enthusiasm than the examination
of the shelters, il is less instructive and certainly
less convincing 1t is also an undertaking fraught
with some difficulty and disappointment. except
III sucH CaseS as Altaul1ra, N1auX ana
Fontde-Gaume, The painted and incised repre-
sentations on the cave walls seldom plain
and striking as one might infer from the superb
reproductions in the published reports. and
make them out the visitor must take time. In
this effort to decipher, he is most ably ASSISTED by
Prof. Emile Cartailhac of Toulouse who has given
a good part of his life to the study of paleothic
art and who present guards nearly all the
Pyrenean caverns. In Spain and in the Dordogne
country. however local guides must be taken and
these not always competent. the student
who would profit by his opportunity must prepare
himself beforehand in regard to what is to be
seen and then insist on being shown. he may
not much.
The last to be discovered, and also the
most beautiful. is the Tue d'Audoubert, located
on the estate of Count Begouen. SAINT -Girons
France. This is perhaps the most difficult cavern
to explore. But to risk passage in the improvsed
boat that the visitor must sail in order to reach
the interior, and to crawl his stomach along
muddy passages that really too small for
fulgrown man. and finally to receive innum-
cradle bumps his head from pending staIac
tites is not too much to pay for the privilege
which, asst happened, was accorded the Museums
representative the first American-to see the
wonders inside. Ordinarily. the natural wonders
of the caverns are more or less dscolored with
mud, but here is gallery after gallery of be-
wildering forests of pillars and pendants and
posts-all pure white and glttering II stud
ded with myriads of diamonds. Here and there
the stalacttes hang in large sheets like folded
draperies and by placing light behind them the
translucent substance flashes up in colors of
green and rose too beautiful to be described
No fairy palace was ever more adorned You are
led along devious passages. stepping again and
again in lakeets of invisiby clear water. and
when on dry footing you warned to move
circumspectly for fear of obliterating some an
cient human footprints that family visible
under the thin coat of stalagmite which covers
the clay floor. Bones end skulls of the giant
cave bear and other animals lie all about cement.
ed in place. Finally, near the extreme inner end
OF the cavern, comes the real object OF the la