1823.] Mr. Weaver on Fossil Human Bones. 29 



From the whole of the facts now detailed in the present and 

 my former communication, it is quite evident that, in the country 

 near Kbstritz, human bones are found intermingled without order 

 with the bones of animals of the ancient world, and with those 

 of existing species, and under precisely the same circumstances, 

 being firmly enveloped and compacted in the loamy deposit 

 which occupies the fissures and cavities of the bed of gypsum 

 that occurs in that vicinity. 



It is undeniable that, in Winter's gypsum quarry, human bones 

 were discovered at the depth of 26 feet from the surface, lying 

 eight fee below the bones of the rhinoceros there also depo- 

 sited. 



The human bones, like those of the other animals, are more or 

 less altered, and deprived of their animal gluten. Human bones 

 and skeletons have also been found in other places, within the 

 tract of the alluvial formations, in the vicinity of the repositories 

 of large land animals of the ancient world ; but which have not 

 hitherto received that attention which they deserve. 



All these considerations give, on the first view, probability to 

 the conclusion, that the other animals were destroyed at the 

 same time with man, and consequently that the latter was 

 already in existence in this country at the period of the destruc- 

 tion of the large land animals ; an opinion which I have already 

 advanced. 



Several important doubts, however, arise, when we closely 

 examine into the local peculiarities and geological relations of 

 other tracts, in which animals of the ancient world are usually 

 met with ; and when we also consider that such animals are 

 found in common with recent species in the neighbourhood of 

 Kbstritz. 



As far as hitherto known, such remains of recent species have 

 not been found in any other place intermingled with those of the 

 more ancient,* and still less with the bones of man. No remains 

 of the large land animals of the ancient world have been met 

 with in the osseous breccia of the coasts of the Mediterranean, 

 which contains, according to the exact determination of Cuvier, 

 only bones of recent species. 



All the circumstances under which fossil human remains had 

 hitherto been discovered in the latest deposits, obviously bespoke 

 their modern destruction, and in the greater number of the 

 recorded instances, implements and utensils were found in their 

 vicinity, e. g. in Guadaloupe, near Pabstdorf, Burgtonna, &c. ; 

 and in the case of the fiwt place, it is nearly proved, that a bury- 

 ing ground of the Caribs exists there, which is now washed by 

 the sea, and covered with its deposits. All other reported 

 cases of the occurrence of human remains in more ancient 



• To this position, the Kirkdale cave in Yorkshire, in which extinct and existing 

 species occur together, appears to afford a direct answer. (Sec Prof. Buckland's lumi- 

 nous view of this question, in the paper already adverted to)— T. W. 



