THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 211 



The Polonian sheet came only as far south as the 

 midlands. 



Third Inter-Glacial Period. Diirntenian (G.) ; 



Riss-Wurm (P.). 



During this genial epoch the Alpine glaciers 

 dwindled considerably, and in the cave of Wild- 

 kirchli, which is 4,800 feet in elevation, on the 

 Ebenalp, have been found, along with imple- 

 ments of Mousterian character, a fauna amongst 

 which are cave-bear, cave-lion, wolf, stag, ibex, 

 all which species have been identified in the 

 Mentone caves, where they are also associated 

 with Mousterian implements, as well as with the 

 remains of the straight-tusked elephant, the 

 broad-nosed rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus 

 (G., 263). Geikie associates the Mousterian civili- 

 zation with this period. On the other hand, 

 Hoernes places Magdalenian man in it, a race 

 certainly much later than the Mousterian and 

 now invariably included amongst the Younger 

 Palaeolithic races, and not the Middle, as is the 

 case with the Mousterians. Keith assigns to this 

 period the Galley Hill skeleton, a specimen as to 

 which there has been great controversy, dis- 

 covered in the Thames Valley some years ago, 

 and remarks concerning it : " The first impres- 

 sion on examining the remains of this earliest 

 known inhabitant of England* is one of surprise, 

 almost of disappointment ; in all his features, 



* At the date when the book was published this statement was 

 correct, but it is some index of the rapidity with which discoveries 

 have been made that it should no longer be accurate, since at 

 least the Piltdown skull seems to be of much greater antiquity. 



