f 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.

[Fig 12. Palaeolithic art - a knife-handle: 299.jpg]

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 true artist (Fig. 14). The design is like a
hasty memorandum of Leech's. Then compare the stiff formality of the
modern Eskimo drawing (Fig. 13). It is rather like a record, a piece of
picture-writing, than a free sketch, a rapid representation of what is
mo