Riverside Skull. 151 



At several points in America the remains of man and the mam- 

 moth are found in the same locality. In Europe a similar state of 

 things has been observed. In the Madeline cave of Dordogne, a 

 plate of ivory was discovered, having engraved upon it the figure 

 of a mastodon, with eyes, tusks, and general shape so exact that the 

 barbarian artist who lived cotemporaneously with the beast, must 

 have had a living specimen to sketch from. The engraved tusk of 

 ivory was found in such relationship with the implements of the 

 earlier races of mankind that t'lere can be no question in regard 

 to the existence of the two beings at the same time. 



But in this departure from ray chosen topic I have not intended 

 to convey the impression that the Riverside skull and the tusk 

 found above it were anything more to each other than that they 

 were incidentally engulphed in the same gravel pit. 



The orbits of the cranium, the nasal chambers, the aural cavities, 

 and other crevices were packed with a clayey soil peculiar to the earth 

 on the top of the hill, above the gravel bank. It is highly probable, 

 then, that in land slides which are constantly occurring along the crest 

 of the ridges overhanging the river basin, the skull was carried from 

 its original burial place down the steep declivity to the pebbly bed 

 wliere it was lately found. During some inundation subsequent to 

 the slide, the tusk plunged from its primary resting place higher 

 up the river, and lodged in the supermiposed gravel, where it was 

 at length disentombed by railroad navvies. The fragile condition 

 of the ivory — a material which resists disintegration longer than 

 bone — shows that the tusk has been subjected to the ravages of time 

 much longer than the fairly-preserved cranial bones. Mere super- 

 position in the shifting banks of a large river is an unreliable test 

 of the relative antiquity of imprisoned objects. 



The cranium, or what remains of it, is browned with the alluvium: 

 of its original interment; and is somewhat fragile. The bones of 

 the face are lost both maxillae are wanting, also the malar bones, 

 as well as those of the nares. The ethmoid is gone, and parts of the 

 sphenoid; but the plates of the skull have maintained the boundaries 

 of the cranial cavity. The outline of what is left quite accurately 

 represents the average brain-pan of the savage Indian, or of the 

 Moundbuilder. The forehead is rather low and notably retreating, 

 though not to a degree to be called simian — not even equal to 

 that of the lowest savage. The upper jaw being absent, "the 

 facial angle" can not well be determined. However, it is far from 



