weapons of bronze, the time which sufficed to change the climate
and fauna and flora of Western Europe, lie between us and palaeolithic
man. Yet in him we must recognise a skill more akin to the spirit of
modern art than is found in any other savage race. Palaeolithic man,
like other savages, decorated his weapons; but, as I have already
said, he did not usually decorate them in the common savage manner
with ornamental patterns. He scratched on bits of bone spirited
representations of all the animals whose remains are found mixed with
his own. He designed the large-headed horse of that period, and
science inclines to believe that he drew the breed correctly. His
sketches of the mammoth, the reindeer, the bear, and of many fishes,
may be seen in the British Museum, or engraved in such works as
Professor Boyd Dawkins's _Early Man in Britain_. The object from which
our next illustration (Fig. 12) was engraved represents a deer, and
was a knife-handle. Eyes at all trained in art can readily observe the
wonderful spirit and freedom of these ancient sketches. They are the
rapid characteristic work of true artists who know instinctively what
to select and what to sacrifice.

[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Palaeolithic Art: a Knife-handle.]

[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Eskimo Drawing: a Reindeer Hunt.]

Some learned men, Mr. Boyd Dawkins among them, believe that the
Eskimo, that stunted hunting and fishing race of the Western Arctic
circle, are descendants of the palaeolithic sketchers, and retain their
artistic qualities. Other inquirers, with Mr. Geikie and Dr. Wilson,
do not believe in this pedigree of the Eskimo. I speak not with
authority, but the submission of ignorance, and as one who has no
right to an opinion about these deep matters of geology and ethnology.
But to me, Mr. Geikie's arguments appear distinctly the more
convincing, and I cannot think it demonstrated that the Eskimo are
descended from our old palaeolithic artists. But if Mr. Boyd Dawkins is
right, if the Eskimo derive their lineage from the artists of the
Dordogne, then the Eskimo are sadly degenerated. In Mr. Dawkins's
_Early Man_ is an Eskimo drawing of a reindeer hunt, and a palaeolithic
sketch of a reindeer; these (by permission of the author and Messrs.
Macmillan) we reproduce. Look at the vigour and life of the ancient
drawing--the feathering hair on the deer's breast, his head, his
horns, the very grasses at his feet, are touched with the graver of a
t