coveries at La Mouthe led to Félix Regnault's successful search in 1897 for mural art at Marsoulas. In 1902, through a subvention of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Cartailhac and Breuil began their study of the cavern which opens on an affluent of the Salat. About the close of the Magdalenian epoch, the anterior part of the Marsoulas cavern was filled by a fall of earth and stone, thus accounting for the complete absence of neolithic culture and the good preservation of the wall decorations.
The principal figures number fourteen and comprise six horses, six bison, one wild goat, and one deer. Of the more than one hundred partial figures, a majority represent the bison. Here, as elsewhere, are found problematical figures that might be construed as caricatures of man. The details of a fine polychrome bison, painted over a partially etfaced series of figures in black, are exactly similar to those in the polychrome frescoes of Altamira and Font-de-Gaume,
One curious figure of a bison (pl. 12, fig. a) is done in a peculiar technique. The head was first engraved, then painted reddish brown, the horns remaining without color. The entire body was filled in with dots or small spots carefully arranged, as if done with the point of a brush. At Marsoulas there are at least three distinct layers of wall decorations, probably dating from the Aurignacian, Solutréan, and lower Magdalenian epochs.
The large caverne des Forges at Niaux (Ariège) is about 4 kilometers from Tarascon. On account of its size Niaux has for a long time been looked upon as a sort of show place. In 1886 Doctor Garrigou noted the presence of drawings on the walls of this cavern. They were rediscovered in 1906. This is another one of the caverns being explored by Cartailhac and Breuil, at the expense of the Académie des Inscriptions and by authority of the Administration des Eaux et Forêts.
The narrow entrance is 100 meters above the Vic-de-Sos, a tributary of the Ariège. The cavern has a total length of 1,100 meters. The best specimens of mural art, including fine drawings and engravings, are in the rotunda at a distance of 772 meters from the entrance. They are grouped on the ceiling as well as the sides. Figures of the bison, thirty in number, predominate. The horse, wild goat, and stag are also represented. The drawings are outlines in a single color, usually black, in which style of art Niaux excels. The medium is presumably a mixture of charcoal and oxide of manganese, to which grease or oil may have been added. It was applied with a brush. Nearly half the animals are represented as having arrows (pl. 12, fig. b) sticking in their sides. It is suggested that these may be votive figures symbolizing the hunter's hopes for success in the chase. Both drawings and engravings are wonderfully well pre-
