These staves, of which hundreds have now been found, were picked up in many different places, including the Goyet Cave in Belgium, the caves of Périgord and Charente, and the Veyrier Station in Savoy. At Thayngen, as many as twenty-three were found, all pierced with one hole only.22 We must not omit to mention amongst these relies of ages gone by, one of the most interesting found in 1887 at Montgaudier (Charente) (Fig. 35), which bears on one side a representation of two seals, and on the other of two eels, the former of which especially are executed with a truth to form, boldness of execution, and delicacy of touch which are positively astonishing when we remember that the artist (we cannot refuse him this title) bad no tools at his disposal but a few miserable flints or roughly pointed bones. The hinder limbs, so strangely placed in amphibia, are faithfully rendered; each paw has its five toes, the texture of the skin can be made out, the head is delicately modelled; the muzzle with its whiskers, the eye, the orifice of the ear, all testify to real skill. The existence of the seal in the Quaternary epoch in the south of France was not known until quite recently, when Mr. Hardy found in a cave near Périgueux the remains of a seal (_Phoca grœnlandica_), associated with quite an arctic fauna. In part at least therefore of the Quaternary period, very great cold must have prevailed in Périgord.23 With this staff of office were picked up some pieces of ivory covered with geometrical designs, engraved with some sharp implement, stilettos, bone needles, knives, flint scrapers, and, stranger still, the remains of the cave-lion, the cave-hyena, and the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, all contemporaries of the most ancient Quaternary fauna. [Illustration: 35.] Staff of office found at Montgaudier. It was not only on the staves of office that the men of the Stone age exercised their talent. Many and varied are the subjects which have been found engraved on plaques of ivory or on stone, and incised on bears’ teeth or on stag horn. We represent one forming the hilt of a dagger (Fig. 36), and another representing a bear with the convex forehead, characteristic of the species, engraved on a piece of schist (Fig. 37), and a mammoth engraved on an ivory plaque with its long mane, trunk, and curved tusks (Fig. 38). The artist who depicted these animals with such faithful exactitude evidently lived amongst them. The first discovery of this kind was made by Joly-Leterme in the Chaffaud Cave (Vienna); it was a reindeer bone on which two stags were represented.24 [Illustration: 36.] Carved dagger-hilt (Laugerie-Basse). [Illustration: 37.] The great cave-bear, drawn on a pebble found in the Massat Cave (Garrigou collection).