New Britain herald., 1929-03-29
She Digs Up Old Worlds ---and New Adventures

New York, March 29-For sheer, sustained thrill. modern woman might do we'll to try digging into the earth instead of flying away from it, judging from Dr. Ida Treat. paleontologist.
 Dr. Treat digs in the painted cave section of the Pyrannees. France. for traces of prehistoric man and is fascinated. She has had the joy of uncovering one valuable burial that contained historic skeleton that was very first of it's kind to be found She has unearthed some curious animal frescoes that show the oldest art known. She has found many engraved pebbles. carved spear heads and many other imple- mcnts and bones scattered around buried hearths of men who lived 30.oOo years ago.
 There is adventure, change and chance all bound up together in my work" Dr. Treat explained her en- thusiasm and satisfaction in it. "l think paleontology the complete pro- fession. First, there is something fundamentally satisfying in digging. Scientific digging makes one use both her head and her hands. Last, ly, I work half in the field and half in the French Museum of Natural History. in the laboratory of PNcon- tology.
 An Old W Oriu in tl,c New
 ''In addition, it is twice fascinat- ing 10 explore an unknown, ancient world right in France, a country where so many know every stone so we'll"
 Of course there is great deal of technique to be learned before any one can start right out hunting pre- historic man. Dr. Treat studied bi- ology and geology in Paris. and worked under Prof. Marcellin Bouic in the French Museum of Natural History and is to receive her doctor of science degree this spring. When she took her Ph.D. in Romance Languages in Paris, before teaching here in America during the war, she was the youngest woman ever to get such degree there.
 She IS visiting in her home coun- try now for the first time since 1919
 When one is fully equipped to know what 10 look for and how, finding cave to dig in sounds d little like modern house hunting.
 First, you pick a cave with a good south exposure" Dr. Treat ad- vised. "because of course these were dwellings and even prehistoric man appreciated the sun. If you find one with much undergroWth across the entrance it is much better for 1t means you are the first one there and you are much more likely to uncover ancient treasures.
 Since pre- historic man lived about the fireside. clipped his bones, carved his tools and engraved his weapons around the fire, the first thing to look for is a hearth. Traces of charcoal. flint and bone mean d hearth, usually. You will not find traces Of art near the en- trance Of these caves. For paint ines were always in the interior back where the rituals took place.
 raleontoIogy? Here's How!
 The technique of a paleontolo- gist's digging is something like this. After the cave has been decided upon. one trench is dug, and the various layers of earth studied from it's wall Sometimes one cave has several layers Of civilization. The periods are identified by the arChe- ological layers of animal bones. flint took and so on. You uncover layer after layer with a poker, carefully, examining everything, throwing away nothing because d queer shap- cd stone may turn out to be a chisel 2S0o0 years old. One works alone. or with perhaps a single ditch dig ger for heavy work If anything delicate is found, plaster is poured over it and the whole mass removed to the laboratory, where the plaster is clipped off carefully, with a needle.
 Aside from skill needle in this prehist oric hunting. if seems no profession for an old lady or an old gentleman.
 Those Nimblc Ancicnt>!
 One must be positively aCrobatic, for pre- historic man was so aeil" he could leap easily upon balconies that t,,ttSt l, alnJ ,tor,i10uOly now l,it h ropes. Sometimes one CraNls for days through low. dark caves or I, sccnds into gaseous carrion wells where pre- historic dead animals were thrown. There is an occasional icy underground torrent 10 be sWunl, clothes and all, and armies of bats 10 encounter whose wings sound like rushing water. so many of them beating together. There are even snakes in entrances. Last, but not least. there is the chance of cave panic. an unrcasoning thing, hard tc combat, the fear the best mountain climbers have.
 Everyone has cave panic al least once" Dr. Treat smiled. But il is the least of ones worries The things that impress you are the great silenCes. the peace. the per spectivc one gets. For, after all when you realize that civilization after civilization has disappeared l into the earth 10 make way for an other layer, if is impossible 10 get | ,,,. l generation"
 Sleeves grow more complicated and increase their number in the l gat hers anunar af the ion Ol