The characters (Fig. 139) are carved in intaglio on the farthest stone of the entrance, on the left side. The whole of the inscription measures 1^{ m}, 10 in height and 82 centimeters in width, and may be divided into two groups, an upper and a lower one.
[Illustration: FIG. 139.--Petroglyph in Épone, France.]
The upper character represents a rectangular figure divided into three transverse sections; in the third section and almost in the center is a cupule.
The lower character is more complicated and more difficult to describe. The first, or left-hand portion, represents a stone hatchet with a shaft; there is no doubt as to this, in my mind, as the outlines are perfectly clear, the design of the hatchet being very distinct. This hatchet measures 0^{ m}, 108 in length and 38^{ mm} in width to the edge of the blade. These are precisely the most common dimensions of the hatchets of our country. As to the remainder of the character, I think an interpretation of it difficult and premature.
On the whole, the result of an examination of these inscriptions leaves the impression that the author did not seek to cover a stone with ornamentation, for these outlines have nothing whatever of the ornamental, but that he wished to represent to his people, by intelligible symbols, some particular idea.
É. Cartailhac (_a_) begins an account of petroglyphs in the Department of Morbihan, in the old province of Brittany, translated and condensed as follows:
It is hardly possible to give a description of the designs in the covered way of Gavr’ inis. They are various linear combinations, the lines being straight, curved, undulating, isolated, or parallel, ramified like a fern, segments of concentric circles, limited or not, and decorating certain compartments with close winding spirals, recalling vividly the figures produced by the lines on the skin in the hollow of the hand and on the tips of the fingers.
In the midst of accumulated and very oddly grouped lines, which no doubt are merely decorative, there are found signs which must have had a meaning, and some figures easy to determine.
The hatchet, the stone hatchet and no other, the large hatchet of Tumiac, of Mané-er-Hroèg, and of Mont Saint Michel, is represented in intaglio or in relief, real size. A single pillar of Gavr’ inis bears eighteen of them. Less numerous groups are seen on some other blocks of the same covered way.