PIUMIGENIAL SKELETONS. 21 



see a note in our Facts about Pompeii, published by Messrs. 

 Hazell, Watson & Viney, London. 



Mr. A. Vaughan Jennings, as we have said, in 1892 had an 

 article in the June number of Natural Science concerning The 

 Cave Men of Mentone, which was so peculiarly inaccurate in its 

 facts as to merit a few lines of criticism. First of all he refers to 

 M. Riviere's skeleton of 1872 as if discovered in 1873. It was M. 

 Riviere's monograph that appeared in 1873. Knowing the place, 

 as we have all our life, we can say that he is correct when he 

 affirms that " the east side of the cavern No. 4 * has been a good 

 deal cut back by quarrying," although he omits to mention that 

 both sides of the cavern indeed, the whole face of the cliff some 

 twenty years ago came to within a couple of yards of the rocks 

 that break the force of the sea. Mr. Jennings, from his state- 

 ment, shows that he did not see the remains till the 15th of March, 

 and that by that date they were considerably modified, the skull 

 and arms having been removed. We saw the skeletons on March 

 18th, and according to notes we made at the time the arms were 

 still there ; however, we had the opportunity of seeing them on 

 the 23d of February in a very complete state. We also saw the 

 left arm of the third skeleton, that of the woman, bent up, which 

 Mr. Vaughan Jennings particularly says was not the case. In a 

 footnote on M. Riviere's measurements and those mentioned by 

 the papers, Mr. Vaughan Jennings regrets that " the exact meas- 

 ure will probably never be known, as the neck and shoulder re- 

 gion is now destroyed." We are happy to have been able to supply 

 this necessary information, from measurements that we took at 

 the time on the spot, before the skeletons were removed from the 

 earth in which they were imbedded. Later on Mr. Hanbury, of 

 Mortola, very generously bought the skeletons from Abbo and 

 placed them in the latter's cottage with the other remains ; this 

 has saved them from further destruction. Mr. Jennings places 

 the 1892 skeletons between the palaeolithic and neolithic periods 

 of man, and very rightly deprecates the habit of speaking of 

 these periods with sharp distinctions ; thus it is possible that an 

 intermediate race existed, while it is only natural to understand 

 that the formation of neolithic man was merely a series of pro- 

 gressions from earlier forms. On the other hand, the period of 

 time between the existence of palaeolithic and neolithic man may 

 not have been so great as has been supposed. 



PART II, MAN, THE FLOOD, AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 



Flint instruments, the product of man, for a long time have 

 been often found in many places. It is merely necessary here to 



* M. Riviere's No. 5. 



