510 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



miles (10 km.) southeast from Heidelberg, They form the moder- 

 ately elevated undulating northern boundaries of the shallow valley, 

 at a distance of about 2 miles from the present bed of the river, and 

 represent in the main the quaternary accumulations of the stream. 

 They consist of loess, sand and gravels, with here and there, in the 

 deeper layers, isolated flat blocl« of red sandstone (pi. 9). 



The portion of these deposits owned by H. Kosch, located about 500 

 paces north of the Mauer village, have now been worked, in open 

 manner, for upward of 30 years, in which time great quantities of 

 building sand have been removed. During this work, particularly 

 in the lower strata, the Avorkingmen often unearthed fossil shells and 

 fossil bones of various Quaternary animals. Many of these speci- 

 mens found their way, mostly as gifts of Herr Kosch, to the Heidel- 

 berg University, and the diggings were repeatedly visited by 

 scientific men, among whom Prof. Schoetensack. Both the owner 

 and the workmen were enjoined to watch for better preserved speci- 

 mens, and particularly for anything relating to the presence of man. 



On the date of the find, two of the laborers were working in un- 

 disturbed material at the base of the exposure, over 80 feet in depth 

 from the surface, when one of them suddenly brought out on his 

 shovel part of a massive lower jaw which the implement had struck 

 and cut in two. As the men knew it was worth while to carefully 

 preserve all fossils, the specimen was handled with some care. The 

 missing half was dug out, but the crowns of four of the te^th broken 

 by the shovel were not recovered. The men were struck at once with 

 the remarkable resemblance of the bone to a human lower jaw; but 

 it looked to them too thick and large to be that of man. They called 

 Herr Rosch and he also was bewildered; but he recognized immedi- 

 ately that the specimen might be of considerable interest to Prof. 

 Schoetensack and so he took charge of it. Returning to the village he 

 telegraphed to the professor, who came the next day, and " once he 

 got hold of the specimen, h.e would no more let it out of his posses- 

 sion." He took it to Heidelberg, cleaned it, repaired it. and in 1908 

 published its description in an exemplar^'' waj^^ Since then the 

 valuable specunen has been preserved in the Paleontological Institute 

 of the Heidelberg University, where, thanks to the liberality of those 

 in charge, it is available for examination to men of science.- 



Shortly following the discovery of the jaw a most careful examina- 

 tion and study were made of the Mauer deposits. They were found 

 to range from recent accmnulations on the siu'face to Tertiary de- 

 posits in the lowest layers. The jaw lay a little less than three feet 



1 Shoetensack, Otto. Der Unterklefer des Homo Heidelbergensis. aus den Saoden voq 

 Mauer bei Heidelberg, 4o, Leipzig, 1908, pp. 1-67, 13 plates. 



- The writer wishes to thank herewith especially Prof. Wilhelm Salomon, chief ot the 

 Institute, for the courtesies extended. 



