1863.] 



527 



I was struck with the thickness of the bone, the great breadth of 

 the ascending ramus, but especially with the extraordinary breadth 

 and depth of the groove between the ramus and alveolar border, in 

 which I could almost lay my little finger. The jaw would appear 

 to be that of a person advanced in life ; and the tooth originally 

 found, which very probably belonged to the other half of the same 

 jaw, seemed to me to have been "endommagee" by caries during 

 life rather than by subsequent violence. 



Fig. 1. 



M. Boucher de Perthes had the kindness to give me the accom- 

 panying sketch of the specimen ; and I can testify to the accuracy 

 of its representation of the general form of the bone. 



On Tuesday morning I repaired, in company with M. Boucher 

 de Perthes, to the gravel-pit of Moulin-Quignon ; in which he 

 showed me, as nearly as he could, the situation in which this most 

 interesting relic had been found. Unfortunately there had occurred, 

 a few days previously to my visit, a slip of the overlying strata, by 

 the debris of which the exact spot was covered ; but a part of the 

 same deposit was visible at a horizontal distance of a yard or two, 

 so that I could indubitably verify its position and its general cha- 

 racters. This deposit, distinguished from every other by the ex- 

 treme depth of its ferruginous tint (which corresponds exactly to 

 that of the bone), lies at the very bottom of the pit, in immediate 

 contact with the subjacent chalky as shown in the accompanying 

 representation of the section (also kindly given to me by M. 

 Boucher de Perthes), to the general accuracy of which I can bear 

 the most explicit testimony. I myself took away from this deposit 

 some specimens of the small rounded flints which it contains, and 

 which will serve to show you this peculiar tint. 



