TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 81 
On certain Markings on some of the Bones-of a Megaceros hibernicus lately 
found in Ireland. By J. Bure Juxes, F.RS., F.GS. 
Part of the skeleton of a Megaceros having been procured by Mr. F. J. Foot, of 
the Geological Survey, from some men who were digging turf in a bog at Legan, 
south of Edeworthstown, co. Longford, two of the bones and a broken tine of one 
of the horns were found to exhibit deep cuts as if made with a Imife. A femur 
showed a narrow transverse cut, 4 inches long and 3 an inch deep. A tibia had a 
wider and shallower indentation, and one exactly corresponding to it was found in 
the broken horn-tine. When put together, these accurately fitted into each other; 
and certain mineral stainings existed on the surfaces of both, of precisely similar 
shape, showing that the surfaces had long been in perfectly close contact. 
Mr. Jukes suggested that these indentations might have been produced by the 
mutual pressure of the two bodies lying in the marl beneath the bog for a long 
period of time. 
According to Mr. Foot’s statement, they lay in about 2 feet of shell-marl resting on 
gravel and clay, and covered by 15 feet of turf; and some of the old men of the 
neighbourhood said that 25 feet of turf had been formerly removed from the bog. 
Mr. Jukes suggested also the possibility of the narrow transverse cut across the 
femur haying been in like manner produced by the pressure of the sharp edge of a 
piece of antler; and wished to point out the great caution required before appealing 
to any mere marks or cuts on fossil bones as undoubted proofs of human agency. 
He also called attention to the very fresh state of the bones, which had been 
analysed by his friend M. Alphonse Gages and found to consist of 
Inorganic matter (carbonate and phosphate of lime) ,,....., 58°58 
Organic matter (cartilaginous, Kc.) sess. reeeee single as ahasiep Shree 
100:00 
with a density of 1:788, The bone examined was one of the ribs, 
On the Neanderthal Skull, or Reasons for believing it to belong to the Clydian 
Period, and to a Species different from that represented by Man, By Prof. 
W. Kine. 
The evidences for the first proposition involved in the above title were based on 
Lyell’s description of the Neanderthal cave, which, in Prof. King’s opinion, occurs, 
with one or two negative exceptions, under the same ancient physical-geography 
conditions as the caverns of the Meuse valley. If the latter became charged with 
their organic and inorganic contents during the Clydian period *, as must be ad- 
mitted, it was contended that the Neanderthal infilling belonged to the same great 
term of geological time, though possibly to its latest division—that of the “ Men- 
checourt low-level flint-implement gravels” ft. 
In upholding his second proposition, the author first examined the general 
features of the Neanderthal skull, and showed that, in this point of view, it dif- 
fered widely from all human crania, either recent or fossil. An examination of 
the individual bones of the skull led to the same conclusion; their form and con- 
tours, as well as the relative position of their component parts, were shown to be 
abnormal to man, but normal to the ape. Indeed, so closely does the Neanderthal 
skull resemble that of the young Chimpanzee, figured by Busk in the ‘ Nat. Hist. 
Rey.’ for 1861, as almost to lead to the belief that it does not belong to the 
human genus: it was admitted, however, that, in the absence of the facial and 
basal bones, this would be little more than a mere assumption. 
Prof. King, noticing next the psychical endowments of man, asserted that they 
are visibly expressed in the strongly arched form of his cranium—a feature which, 
though much debased in certain races, characterizes the whole human species. 
* In the last edition (5th) of his ‘Synoptical Table of Aqueous Rock Groups,’ the 
author proposed the name Clydian for the Glacial period. 
t See the author's “Attempt to Correlate the Glacial and Postglacial Deposits of the 
wis (57 plea &e., in ‘ The Geologist,’ 1863, pp. 168-178, 
1863. 6 
