\ ON SOME FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN 307 



and which were first noticed upon them by Professor 

 Meyer. To this communication I appended a brief re- 

 port on the results of my anatomical examination of the 

 bones. The conclusions at which I arrived were : 1st. 

 That the extraordinary form of the skull was due to a 

 natural conformation hitherto not known to exist, even 

 in the most barbarous races. 2nd. That these remark- 

 able human remains belonged to a period antecedent 

 to the time of the Celts and Germans, and were in all 

 probability derived from one of the wild races of North- 

 western Europe, spoken of by Latin writers ; and which 

 were encountered as autochthones by the German immi- 

 grants. And Srdly. That it was beyond doubt that these 

 human relics were traceable to a period at which the latest 

 animals of the diluvium still existed ; but that no proof of 

 this assumption, nor consequently of their so-termed fossil 

 condition, was afforded by the circumstances under which 

 the bones were discovered. 



" As Dr. Fuhlrott has not yet published his description 

 of these circumstances, I borrow the following account of 

 them from one of his letters. ' A small cave or grotto, 

 high enough to admit a man, and about 15 feet deep 

 from the entrance, which is 7 or 8 feet wide, exists in the 

 southern wall of the gorge of the Neanderthal, as it is 

 termed, at a distance of about 100 feet from the Diissel, 

 and about 60 feet above the bottom of the valley. In its 

 earlier and uninjured condition, this cavern opened upon 

 a narrow plateau lying in front of it, and from which the 

 rocky wall descended almost perpendicularly into the 

 river. It could be reached, though with difficulty, from 

 above. The uneven floor was covered to a thickness of 

 4 or 5 feet with a deposit of mud, sparingly intermixed 

 with rounded fragments of chert. In the removing of 

 this deposit, the bones were discovered. The skull was 

 first noticed, placed nearest to the entrance of the cavern ; 

 and further in, the other bones, lying in the same hori- 

 zontal plane. Of this I was assured, in the most positive 

 terms, by two labourers who were employed to clear out 

 the grotto, and who were questioned by me on the spot. 

 At first no idea was entertained of the bones being human ; 

 and it was not till several weeks after then- discovery that 

 they were recognised as such by me, and placed in security. 

 But, as the importance of the discovery was not at the time 

 perceived, the labourers were very careless in the collecting, 



