the animal of those days in no way differed from our tame horses of the present age.[1]
Our cave has yielded us not only drawings, but actual sculptures. Unfortunately they have not come down to us perfect, but still they are such as to interest us extremely. Plate XI. fig. 69, is the head of an animal with part of the neck.[2] The two ears, the eyes, and the greater part of the horns are quite perfect; the muzzle and the nose are altogether wanting. Very strangely, one ear stands higher than the other, probably arising from the fact that the artist has made one horn broader than the other, so that he is decidedly in fault. And as the two eyes also are not at the same height, it seems as if the artist had worked on one side without referring to what he had already done on the other. The eye itself is very neatly carved. It projects a little, and has a decided eyelid. The horns, which are singularly broad at the base, rise quite in front and from the top of the forehead, so that this is here reduced to merely a very narrow hollow; they curve downwards at the side of the head, and seem to bend more forwards than backwards. The neck is ornamented with many lines, formed of a series of small strokes. It is difficult to say what animal this sculpture is intended to represent. Our list of horned animals comprises five species, viz.: the ibex, the chamois, the wisent, the urus, and this animal now under consideration—either the domestic ox or the musk-sheep. The sculpture most completely excludes the three first,
- ↑ These drawings have been shown to a veterinary surgeon, and also to a friend who has seen a great deal of cavalry service, and both of them think that the form of the animal is more like that of the zebra than of the horse.
- ↑ Annexed are the copies of the figures given of this curious sculpture in Professor Rütimeyer's book above referred to. Professor Rütimeyer did not consider the lithographs perfectly accurate.
