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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 83 



Society of Prussian Rhineland and Westphalia, at Bonn, on June 2, 



1857, Dr. Fuhlrott himself gave a full account of the locality of the 



find and of the circumstances under which the discovery was made. 



The principal details of Dr. Fuhlrott's ^ report were as follows : 



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 southern 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 (fig. 3). In its 

 earher and uninjured condition this cavern opened upon a narrow plateau lying 

 in front of it and from which the rocky wall descended almost perpendicularly 

 to the river. It could be reached, though with difficulty, from above. The 

 uneven floor was covered to a thickness of 4 or 5 feet with a deposit of mud. 



Fig, 14. — Section of the Neanderthal Cave near Diisseldorf. (After Lyell.) 



a, Cavern 60 feet above the Diissel, and 100 feet below the surface of the 

 country at c. 



b, Loam covering the floor of the cave near the bottom of which the human 

 skeleton was found. 



/', c. Rent connecting the cave with the upper surface of the country. 



d, Superficial sandy loam. 



e, Devonian limestone. 



/, Terrace, or ledge of rock. 



sparingly intermixed with rounded fragments of chert. In the removing of 

 this deposit the bones were discovered. The skull was first noticed, placed 

 nearest to the entrance of the cavern ; and further in were the other bones lying 

 in the same horizontal plane. Of this I was assured in the most positive terms 

 by the two laborers 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 not till several weeks after their discovery that they 

 were recognized as such by me and placed in security. But, as the importance 

 of the discovery was not at the time perceived, the laborers were very careless 



" Ibid. Correspondenzblatt No. 2. The above follows G. Busks's Translation 

 of Schaaffhausen's " On the crania of the most ancient races of man," Nat. Hist. 

 Review, April, 1861. The main publication by Fuhlrott on the Neanderthal find 

 appears in the monograph : " Der fossile Mensch aus dem Neanderthal und 

 sein Verhaltniss zum Alter des Menschengeschlechts," pp. 1-78, Duisburg, 1865. 



