346 FOSSIL MEN. 



ditions.* In the first place it had been broken, and broken in 

 such a manner as to indicate great violence, as the fractures go 

 through the thickest and heaviest parts of the skull ; again, the 

 evidence of violent and protracted motion, as seen in the manner 

 in which the various bones were wedged into the hollow and in- 

 ternal parts of the skull, as for instance, the bones of the foot 

 under the malar bone. The appearance of the skull was some- 

 thing such as would be expected to result from its having been 

 swept, with many other bones, from the place where it was ori- 

 ginally deposited, down the shallow but violent current of a 

 stream, where it would be exposed to violent blows from the 

 boulders lying in its bed. During this passage, it was smashed, 

 and fragments of the bones occurring with it were thrust into 

 all the cavities where they could lodge. f It then came to rest 

 somewhere, in a position where water charged with lime salts 

 had access to it, and on a bed of auriferous gravel. While ifc 

 lay there, the mass in which it rested was cemented to it by the 

 calcareous matter deposited round the skull, and thus the base 

 of hard mineral tufas and pebbles which was attached to it 

 when placed in the writer's hands was formed. At this time, 

 too, the snail crept in under the malar bone, and there died. 

 Subsequently to this the whole was enveloped in a deposit of 

 gravel, which did not afterwards become thoroughly consoli- 

 dated, and which therefore was easily removed by the gentle- 

 men who first cleaned up the specimen in question, they only 

 removing the looser gravel which surrounded it." 



To any one acquainted with the usual modes of occurrence 

 of fossil bones, the conditions above stated may well seem 

 " peculiar." That the skull and other bones of the skeleton, 

 and even a bead used for ornament, or perhaps put into the 

 mouth as an obolus to pay the Stygian ferryman, in whom 

 some American Indians as well as the Greeks believed, should 

 keep together while rolled down the bed of the torrent, and be 



* The italics are ours. 



f From another statement, it would seem that a shell bead was also 

 attached to the roof of the mouth, and pieces of charcoal introduced into 

 the skull during its rough transit down the stream ! ! 



J A modern snail, Helix Mormomun, still living in the country. 



