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Rh If further evidence were needed to establish the authenticity of paleolithic mural decorations, one need only cite the cavern of Pair- non-Pair where rude deeply incised engravings were revealed on the walls only after the floor deposits of upper Aurignacian age that covered them had been removed. The engravings, therefore, are not only authentic, but dated as well. The same sort of evidence was furnished at La Grèze. There the parietal engravings were covered by floor deposits of Solutréan age.

The excellent preservation of these parietal works of art is due in many cases to the accidental sealing up of the caverns toward the close of the Quaternary. This was the case not only at Altamira, but also at Marsoulas (Haute-Garonne) and Teyjat. That frescoes and engravings are not found on the walls near entrances that were never sealed, but do occur at safe distances from the cavern mouths, is at least negative proof of their antiquity. For the first 60 meters at Font-de-Gaume, one finds no mural art (see fig. 7), and the anterior barren stretch is still greater at Les Combarelles, La Mouthe, and Niaux.

Judged by its parietal art, the cavern of Marsoulas (Haute-Garonne) is a connecting link between Altamira and the Périgord, Gironde, and Gard group of caverns. Marsoulas had been explored from 1880 to 1884 by the Abbé Cau-Durban, who discovered Solutréan and Magdalenian hearths in its floor deposits. At that time he saw certain red outlines on the walls, but supposing they could not date from paleolithic times he did not mention them. The dis-