522 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



in the valley of the Vezere, Dordogne, and it is in caverns that 

 it is mostly found. In France and Belgium it usually occurs 

 in the lowest layer of the implement-bearing debris. 



In Italy it occurs also in gravels in company with Elephas 

 antiquus and Rhinoceros Mcrckii, hippopotamus, bears, and lions. 

 In the grotto de San Ciro, near Palermo, the bones of hippo- 

 potami were found in such quantity that according to a careful 

 estimate they must have represented the remains of at least 

 2,000 individuals. 



We have now obtained a glimpse of the environment 

 within which man courageously carried on his long struggle 

 for existence amidst a crowd of competing beasts of prey. 

 We have examined his weapons, and followed their improve- 

 ment as they progress from stage to stage ; and though we 

 willingly admit their testimony to his intelligence and skill, 

 we cannot help feeling that they are but slight provision 

 after all for combat with the lion, the rhinoceros, or the cave- 

 bear. In comparison with these animals they leave him still 

 far inferior in brute force. All the more reason have we to 

 assume that he owed his successful survival in the first place 

 to his intellectual and moral gifts ; his powers of observation, 

 his ingenuity in device, his faculty of combining strength by 

 association — these were the weapons, quite as much as his 

 stone points and spears, which obtained him dominion over 

 all the beasts of the field. 



This being arouses our curiosity, and we are, above all, 

 anxious to know in what relation he stood to ourselves. 

 Fortunately, the last half-century has put us in possession of 

 some few of his bones, no more than would fill, say, a single 

 coffin, but they are sufficient to instruct us on most of the points 

 of capital importance. 



The first discovery of the bones of lower palaeolithic man 

 to receive serious attention was made in 1856. Not far from 

 Dusseldorf, in Rhenish Prussia, the valley of the Dussel forms 

 a steep and narrow ravine known as the Neandertal. Its 

 rocky walls of limestone are penetrated by several caves, 

 which owe their origin to the solvent power of running water. 

 In one of these caves, opening some 60 ft. above the present 

 level of the river, which has sunk its bed to this depth since 

 the cave was inhabited by man, the famous Neandertal 

 skeleton was found. It lay embedded in a hard, consolidated 



