WHOLE VOL. SKELETAL REMAINS OF EARLY MAN HRDLICKA lOI 



elevation has now disappeared and where once was a hill is now a 

 deep hole, in and about which mining operations are still energetically 

 conducted (1925). 



Mining by white men is said to have begun at Broken Hill in 

 1895. Information about these times is hazy. The tradition is that 

 the " broken hill " before mining looked much like the kopje now 

 remaining; that its weathered and irregular surface was, as already 

 said, honey-combed with holes and crevices ; but that apparently none 

 of the openings led to the great cave filled with bones, debris, and 

 ore, which in 1921 gave the Rhodesian man. 



The main part of the bone cave appears to have been entered by 

 the miners accidentally in the course of their operations ; it was 

 partly excavated and found to contain large quantities of more or less 

 mineralized animal bones, with some stone implements. Of this oc- 

 currence there are reliable records.' The initial notes on the subject 

 are of such value, and at least one of the reports is so difficult to 

 find, that the relevant parts are reproduced in full at the end of this 

 section. 



So much for the earlier information about the Broken Hill cave, 

 and nothing further appears to have been said in print about it until 

 the latter part of 1921, when the Bulawayo and other South African 

 papers brought news about the discovery of the " Rhodesian skull." 



These earlier reports of which the writer saw copies at the office 

 of the Broken Hill Development Company, are of the usual news- 

 paper style and, beyond signalling the discovery, give little of value. 

 The first more detailed notices of the find appeared on Xoveml)er 8. 9, 

 10, and II, 1921, in the London "Times." Shortly after that, on 

 November 17, the first brief scientific report of the find was published 

 in " Nature " by Dr. A. Smith Woodward ; and on November 19, 

 a comprehensive and gorgeously illustrated report by W. E. Harris,' 

 as well as a description of the skull itself by .Sir Arthur Keith, was 

 carried by the " Illustrated London News," with the addition of an 

 ingenious restoration of the race of men represented by the specimen. 



Four years (1925) have elapsed since then. In their course at least 

 eight further brief scientific contributions on the subject of the 

 " Rhodesian Man " have seen light. And the skull, with the ty[>e and 

 age of the human form to which it belonged, remains still largely a 

 puzzle. Moreover, errors of a serious nature have crejjt into the 



* Mennell, F. P., and Chubb, E. C, On an African Occurrence of Fossil Mam- 

 malia Associated with Stone Implements. Geol. Mag., n. s., Decade V, Vol. 4, 

 p. 444 et seq., Jan.-Dec, 1907. See Appendix I. 



* See Appendix II. 



