FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN. 141 



ceive it is quite safe (on the ordinary principles of paleon- 

 tological reasoning) to assume that the former takes us to, 

 at least, the further side of the vague biological limit 

 which separates the present geological epoch from that 

 which immediately preceded it. And there can be no 

 doubt that the physical geography of Europe has changed 

 wonderfully since the bones of Men and Mammoths, Hy- 

 aenas and Rhinoceroses were washed pell-mell into the 

 cave of Engis. 



The skull from the cave of Engis was originally dis- 

 covered by Professor Schmerling, and was described by 

 him, together with other human remains disinterred at 

 the same time, in his valuable work, " Recherches sur les 

 ossemens fossiles decouverts dans les cavernes de la Prov- 

 ince de Liege," published in 1833, (p. 59, et seq.) from 

 which the following paragraphs are extracted, the precise 

 expressions of the author being, as far as possible, pre- 

 served. 



" In the first place, I must remark that these human 

 remains, which are in my possession, are characterized, 

 like the thousands of bones which I have lately been dis- 

 interring, by the extent of the decomposition which they 

 have undergone, which is precisely the same as that of 

 the extinct species : all, with a few exceptions, are broken ; 

 some few are rounded, as is frequently found to be the 

 case in fossil remains of other species. The fractures are 

 vertical or oblique ; none of them are eroded ; their colour 

 does not differ from that of other fossil bones, and varies 

 from whitish yellow to blackish. All are lighter than 

 recent bones, with the exception of those which have a 

 calcareous incrustation, and the cavities of which are filled 

 with such matter. 



The cranium which I have caused to be figured, Plate 



