378 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT
Kents Hole Cave, Devonshire, and a third from Robin Hood Cave, Cresswell Crags.*
It
will be of interest to show here one of the fourteen representations of
the mammoth scratched or engraved on the walls of the "Grotte des
Combarelles" (Dept. Dor-dogne), France, all of which, as has been noted
in the first chapter of this work, had the effect of their outlines
heightened by the use of oxide of manganese.f
It
is not only in the prehistoric cave dwellings of France that graphic
representations of the extinct European elephants have been found, but
in Spain also examples of at least equal interest and value have been
discovered. One of the best of these is a tracing, in a reddish colour,
on the right wall of the cavern of Pindal, in the Asturias, discovered
by Alcalde del Rio in April, 1908. This outline drawing is singularly
successful in presenting the chief characteristics of the great
pachyderm. The animal is depicted in repose, the trunk hanging down
vertically, with a slight curve at the tip; only one tusk is indicated,
by a single stroke. A heart-shaped red mark toward the middle of the
body is supposed to indicate an immense ear flap. An especially notable
circumstance in connection with this effective drawing by prehistoric
man is that the shortness of the tusk in comparison with the length of
the trunk, the lack of any indication of a hairy covering, and several
other signs point to a type differing greatly from that figured in the
French cave dwellings of the Dordogne, a type more closely approaching
that of living elephant species than did the Elephas primigenius. Another
red tracing of a mammoth was found on the wall of the Castillo cavern,
at Puento Viesgo, Soain, discovered by Alcalde del Rio, Novem-
*Communicated
by Dr. R. Scharff, National Museum, Dublin, Ireland. fRichard S. Lull,
"The Evolution of the Elephant," pp. 15, 17. Peabody Museum of Natural
History. Guide No. 2. See figure on p. 367 of present work.
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