MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
longs taxonomically or chronologically. It 1s a comet 
of man’s prehistory. 
Professor Elliot Smith shows the volume of the brain 
of the Rhodesian skull to have been but 1,280 c. c., which 
is markedly smaller than in any of the Neanderthalers 
with the probable exception of the Gibraltar female. 
The cast, very successful, shows the brain to have been 
in general very definitely human, related to that of the 
Neanderthalers, and superior to both that of the Pithecan- 
thropus and Eoanthropus. 
Mr. Hopwood has identified the mammals of the Broken 
Hill cave, of which he has the following to say: 
The study of the mammalian bones found at Broken Hill was under- 
taken in the hope that they might afford some evidence as to the age 
of the human remains found in the cave. It seemed reasonable to 
suppose that, if the contents of the cavern were of any degree of 
antiquity, there might be found portions of animals which are ex- 
tinct, or, at any rate, of species which are not at present represented 
in the fauna of Rhodesia. This hope has been realized only in part. 
The cave fauna is composed of living forms with the exception of 
Rhinoceros whitei Chubb and a new species of Serval cat. 
It is also well to remember that the African continental plateau 
is of extraordinary stability, and that it has been a land area from very 
early times. Furthermore, the climate has always been tropical, or 
sub-tropical, at least to the south of Egypt. Hence, apart from possi- 
ble change in the rainfall, conditions of life have been comparatively 
fixed and the fauna is not likely to have altered in character so rapidly 
as in: other regions, Europe and North America for instance, where 
great changes in the climate and geography have taken place in com- 
paratively recent times. For these reasons it is practically impossible 
at present to estimate the age of African cave deposits by means of 
the fossil mammals. The fact that two extinct forms are known 
proves nothing. It is becoming ever more apparent that the mammal- 
bearing horizons of Central Africa are not comparable in age with those 
of Europe, and that in dealing with them it is useless to apply Euro- 
pean standards. On the evidence of the associated mammalian fauna 
there is no reason to suppose that the human remains are of anything 
but recent date. 
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