400 SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



of the cave collections upon which it is based are to be 

 seen in London, in the British Museum. 



There is one other discovery of a fossil man which 

 comes properly at this point, to cap and confirm what 

 has already been said. Fifteen years ago a skull-top and 

 a thigh-bone were found by Dr. Dubois at Trinil, in the 

 island of Java, at a depth of thirty feet in a sandy deposit, 

 considered by good authority (but not certainly) to be of 

 Pliocene age. From recent reports on the deposit it 

 seems that it may very well be of Pleistocene age. 



FIG. 78. The skull-top of the primitive kind of man from Pleistocene sands 

 in Java, called Pithecanthropus. One-third (linear) of the natural size. 

 Compare with Fig. 65, and refer to that figure for the explanation of 

 the letters and dotted lines. 



These remains have become celebrated as those of a 

 monkey-like man, and the name Pithecanthropus has 

 been given to the creature to which they belonged. This 

 skull-top (or cranial roof) is now in Utrecht, and is well 

 known (Fig. 78). It indicates a race of men or men-like 

 creatures, with the flatness of skull, receding forehead, 

 and large bony eye-ridges, such as we see in the 

 Neander Men and in some South Australians, but greatly 

 exaggerated. The skull was so low and flat as greatly 

 to resemble that of the Gibbon, though much larger. 

 The volume of the cranial cavity (showing the size of 



