170 HUMAN FOSSILS. m 



sions at which I arrived were: 1st. That the extraordinary 

 form of the skull was due to a natural conformation hith- 

 erto not known to exist, even in the most barbarous races. 

 2nd. That these remarkable human remains belonged to 

 a period antecedent to the time of the Celts and Germans, 

 and were in all probability derived from one of the wild 

 races of North-western Europe, spoken of by Latin 

 writers; and which were encountered as autochthones by 

 the German immigrants. And 3rdly. That it was beyond 

 doubt that these human relics were traceable to a period 

 at which the latest animals of the diluvium still existed; 

 but that no proof of this assumption, nor consequently of 

 their so-termed fossil condition, was afforded by the cir- 

 cumstances under which the bones were discovered. 



" As Dr. Fuhlrott has not yet published his description 

 of these circumstances, I borrow the following account of 

 them from one of his letters. ' A small cave or grotto, 

 high enough to admit a man, and about 15 feet deep from 

 the entrance, which is 7 or 8 feet wide, exists in the south- 

 ern wall of the gorge of the Neanderthal, as it is termed, 

 at a distance of about 100 feet from the Diissel, and about 

 60 feet above the bottom of the valley. In its earlier and 

 uninjured condition, this cavern opened upon a narrow 

 plateau lying in front of it, and from which the rocky wall 

 descended almost perpendicularly into the river. It could 

 be reached, though with difficult}*, from above. The un- 

 even floor was covered to a thickness of 4 or 5 feet with a 

 deposit of mud, sparingly intermixed with rounded frag- 

 ments of chert. In the removing of this deposit, the bones 

 were discovered. The skull was first noticed, placed near- 

 est to the entrance of the cavern; and further in, the 

 other bones, lying in the same horizontal plane. Of this 

 I was assured, in the most positive terms, by two la- 

 bourers who were employed to clear out the grotto, and 

 who were questioned by me on the spot. At first no idea 

 was entertained of the bones being human; and it was 



