TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 95 



The longest of Dr. Thurnam's specimens exhibited a cephalic index of -74, and the 

 shortest -87, the avevage being -81 ; and Dr. Thurnani therefore concluded that the 

 typical character of the skulls found in round barrows was that which presented tlie 

 brachycephalic type. When the skulls taken from the Blandford barrows were care- 

 fully measiu'ed, it appeared that the rate of breadth was much smaller than the ave- 

 rage of those measured by Dr. Thumam. AVhere Dr. Thurnam's lowest breadth was 

 •74, the lowest of the Blandford slculls was -66 ; and where his highest was -87, the 

 highest of those from Blandford was -81, the average being in each case respectively 

 •81 and •73. If the Blandford skulls (nine in number) were added to Dr. Thurnam's 

 table of twenty-five, the average of the whole thirty-four would be found to be '77. 

 The distinction between an average of '81 and '77 must strike all observers, and 

 some might consider the deduction of 4 per cent, as invalidating many of the gene- 

 ral conclusions arrived at by Dr. Thurnam. If the author were inclined to base 

 any conclusions on his measurements, he might reverse Dr. Thurnam's " sort of 

 axiom," and say ''long barrows, long skulls; round barrows, long skulls too, and 

 sometimes longer." A description of the sliulls would follow at another time, and 

 the conclusions he would draw at present were as follows: — 1st. That the state of 

 materials at disposal precluded any generalization as to the prevalence of a brachy- 

 cephalic type of the skull in the round barrows of the south of England. 2nd. That 

 a much larger series of skulls from the round, as well as from the long barrows must 

 be measured before any conclusion could be arrived at as to the cranial modulus. 



Oil a Human Jaw from the Belgian Bone-Oaves. 

 Bi/ C. C. Blake, F.G.S., Curator and Librarian, A.S.L. 



The jaw was discovered in the Trou de la Naulette, near Dinant, Belgium, by Dr. 

 E. Dupont, acting under the orders of the Belgian Government. It was found in 

 undisturbed sandy clay (lelun or limonjluviatilc) at a depth of 3| metres (11 ft. 4 ins.), 

 the clay alternating with stalagmite, and affording evidences of gradual deposition. 

 The characters which it presented were very different to those exhibited by the jaws 

 of the white races of the present day, and presented in many points an exaggeration 

 of the characters of the lowest Australian jaws. In some respects it differed widely 

 from the human jaws known to anatomists, and afforded great resemblance to the 

 jaw of tlie yoimg orang (Simia morio). Tlie author gave a careful comparison be- 

 tween this jaw and certain tj-pical jaws selected from three thousand which he had 

 examined, and expressed his belief that the jaw was of vast though unascertained 

 antiquity, and that on the whole the jaw more closely resembled those of the 

 Sclavonic races than any other jaw, while in some points it presented an analogy 

 to and exaggeration of the Australian. 



After giving a minute account of the circumstances which led to the investigation 

 of the Belgian caves by the Anthropological Society in conjunction with Dr.Dupont, 

 the author entered into considerable details respecting the number and character of 

 these caves, the various levels and palfeontological horizons at which they were 

 found, the characteristic fossils of each, the nature of the human remains, and the 

 geological condirions under which the successive deposits of rolled pebbles, stratified 

 lehm, or liynonfliiviatile, angular pebbles, and loess were found. He concluded : — 



1. That the deposit of stratified " lehm " under stalagmite, in the Trou de la 

 Naulette, Avas due to the action of slowly operating causes. 



2. That the individual whose jaw was found therein was contemporary with the 

 elephant and rhinoceros, whose remains are imbedded under like conditions. 



.'5. That some of the characters afforded by the jaw indicate a resemblance to the 

 jaws of the Sclavonic peoples of Eastern Europe, as especially exemplified by the 

 Masures and Wends. 



4. That some of the characters of the jaw from tlie Trou de la Naulette indicate 

 a strong resemblance to, and exaggeration of, the characters afforded by the 

 melanous races of men, and especially the Australian. 



5. That the above characters afford a distinction between the remains found in the 

 Trou de la Naulette and the Trou de Frontal, which latter contained the reindeer- 

 period individuals strongly resembling the C'alniucks of the present day. 



