FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN. 151 



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 T or 8 feet wide, exists in the south- 

 ern wall of the gorge of the Neanderthal, as it is termed, 

 at a distance of about 10 feet from the Dussel, 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 horizontal 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 enter- 

 tained of the bones being human ; and it was not till sev- 

 eral weeks after their discovery that they were recognised 

 as such by me, and placed in security. But, as the im- 

 portance of the discovery was not at the time perceived, 

 the labourers were very careless in the collecting, and 

 secured chiefly only the larger bones ; and to this circum- 

 stance it may be attributed that fragments merely of the 

 probably perfect skeleton came into my possession." 



" My anatomical examination of these bones afforded 

 the following results : 



The cranium is of unusual size, and of a long-elliptical 

 form. A most remarkable peculiarity is at once obvious 

 in the extraordinary development of the frontal sinuses, 

 owing to which the superciliary ridges, which coalesce 

 completely in the middle, are rendered so prominent, that 



