NATURAL SCIENCE: 



A Monthly Review of Scientific Progress. 



No. 14. Vol II. APRIL, 1893. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



Prehlstoric M.\n in Switzerl.\xd, 



Those interested in the study of prehistoric man should read an 

 important paper which has just appeared in the " Nouvelles archives des 

 Missions scientifiques et litteyaives " (vol. iii., pp. 1-25, pis. i.-iv.) In 

 this paper M. Marcellin Boule gives a clear and readable account of 

 the excavations undertaken by Dr. Niiesch in deposits under a rock- 

 shelter at Schweizersbild, near Schaffhausen, in Switzerland. The 

 explorations are particularly valuable, not only from the interest of 

 the objects discovered, but on account of the care that has evidently 

 been taken to note the exact conditions under which each object was 

 found. 



The highest deposit is of recent origin, and contains Neolithic and 

 Palaeolithic implements mixed pell-mell with coins, etc. Bed 2 is 

 entirely of Neolithic age, and yields not only implements, but graves 

 with human skeletons (nine have already been found.) It contains, 

 also, bones of various animals, all still living in Switzerland with the 

 exception of the reindeer, the bones of which, however, are thought 

 by M. Boule to have been dug out of the lower strata when the 

 Neolithic graves were excavated. Next comes a rubbly deposit, 

 without trace of man, but containing a loamy seam full of bones of 

 small rodents. Though this bed 3 is of great importance, separating 

 as it does Neolithic from Palaeolithic strata, we are not told what 

 the rodents are, or whether they point to warm or cold conditions. 

 The omission is unfortunate, for we should like to know whether any 

 climatic change coincided with the change of races. In bed 4 tl:e 

 reindeer is the dominant form, and with it are found bone tools, har 



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