The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1915-09-17
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earshot OF Les Eyzies q series OF stations
which taken together furnish data on 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 ledge-shelter that served old-time
brigands as a rendezvous and also fortress
to defy the English in 1410; 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 relic bearing debris and
to cling in an infantile sort Of way to the over
hanging cliff in spite of it's cold, damp nature.
Some distance up the Vezere, at the Rock Of st.
Christopher where the last houses have been re-
moved there are over four meters of debris
dating from neolithic to present time and the
adjacent cliff is marked by several series of par
allel holes, cut for the insertion of ceiling beams,
precisely as we find them in our own Southwest.
Some Of these holes arc high up the cliff, 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, it 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.
visit to the painted caves is the experience
of q lifetime; but while it is an adventure bound
to excite more enthusiasm than the examination
OF the Shelters it is less instructive and certainly
less convincing. III is also an Undertaking fraught
with some difficulty and disappointment, except
perhaps in such cases Altamira, Niaux and
Font-de-Gaume. The painted and incised repre-
sensations the walls are seldom so plain
and striking one might infer from the superb
reproductions in the published reports. and to
make them out the visitor must take time. In
this effort to decipher he is most ably assisted by
Prof. Emile Cartaihac of Toulouse, who has given
a good part of his life to the study Of paeolithic
art and who as 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. or he may
not much.
The last to be discovered, and also the
most beautiful, is the Tue dAudoubert, located
on the estate of Count Begouen, near Sant-Girons,
France This is perhaps the most difficult
to explore. But to risk passage in the improvised
boat that the visitor must sail in order to reach
the interior, and to crawl on his stomach along
muddy passages that really too small for
a fullgrown man, and finally to receive innum-
cradle bumps on his head from pending stalac-
tites is not too much to pay for the privilege
which, as It happened, was accorded the Museums
representative as the first American-to see the
wonders inside. Ordinarily the natural wonders
of the caverns are more or less discolored with
mud, but here is gallery after gallery of be-
wildering forests OF pillars and pendants and
POSTAL pure white and glittering as If stud
ded with myriads of diamonds. Here and there
the stalacttes hang in large sheets like folded
draperes 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 more adorned! You are
led along devious passages stepping again and
again in lakeets of invisibly clear water and
when on dry footing you warned to move
circumspectly for fear of obterating some an
cient human footprints that are family visible
under the thin coat of stalagmite which covers
the clay hoor Bones and skulls OF the giant
cave bear and other animals lie all about cement
cd in place. Finally, near the extreme inner end
OF the cavern, comes the real object of the la