348 



SCIENCE PROGRESS 



■equally distinguished authorities, Virchow, Desor, and Fraas, 

 maintained the contrary. De Mortillet believed that they had 

 been made not by man himself, but by a semi-human precursor 

 which he named Homosimius Bourgeoisii. 



Otta. — Fragments of quartzite and flint were next found by 

 Carlo Ribeiro 1 in lacustrine beds of upper Miocene age at Otta, 

 a village not far from Madrid. These have been attributed by 

 G. de Mortillet to another species of Homosimius : H. Ribeiri. 



Pity County. — The upper Miocene of Puy Courny, near 

 d'Aurillac, in the department of Cantal, Auvergne, has also fur- 

 nished numerous flints of supposed human workmanship. They 

 were discovered by J. B. Rames in 1877, and from that time to 



Fig. 4. 



Fig. 5. 



Fig. 6. 



this the locality has proved a battle-field for contending opinions, 

 the combatants on each side being equally confident in the 

 strength of their cause. In this case there is no question as to 

 the palaeontological horizon from which the flints have been 

 obtained : it is unquestionably upper Miocene, and has furnished 

 remains of extinct mammals, such as Dinothcrium giganteum, 

 Kaup ; Mastodon longirostris, Kaup ; Rhinoceros Schleiermacheri, 

 Kaup ; Hipparion gracile, Kaup. The sole point in dispute is 

 whether the flints have or have not been fashioned by man or 

 a precursor of man. The accompanying illustration (figs. 4, 5, 

 and 6) represents one of an artefact origin. 



The veteran anthropologist de Quatrefages asserts that if 

 these forms had been met with in Pleistocene deposits no one 



' C. Ribeiro, " Descrip^ao de alguno silex a quartzites laseddos encontrados nas 

 camadas dos terrenos terciario e quaternario," Lisboa, 1871. 



