624 iiEroiiT— 1880. 



5. On Prehistoric Times in the Valley of the Rhine. 

 By Professor Schaaffhausen. 



The author described the results of his ohservations made in the Valley of the 

 Rhine, hetween Mayence and Cologne. The hurial-places of pre-Roman times are 

 always situated on the ancient banks of this river. The immense prehistoric heds of 

 our present rivers must he considered in close connection with the greater extension of 

 the ice-hills in the mountains, which are the principal sources of the great rivers. 

 It has lately been observed in the neighbourhood of Berlin, which is situated in the 

 ancient bed of the Spree, that all remains of the stone and bronze periods are found 

 in the higher land, whilst those of the irou period are found at a lower level. 



Professor Schaaffhausen believed that Neanderthal man was living during the 

 glacial period. There are found in Switzerland stakes, pointed by a human hand, 

 in a formation, which is placed between two glacial periods. Near Ooblenz, in the 

 valley of the Moselle, was found, deep in the diluvial clay of the river, the skull of 

 bos moschatus, a mammal, which lives now only in the coldest northern regions ; the 

 outside of this skull bears irrefutable marks of human stone implements ; it is evident, 

 therefore, that man was living during the glacial period of the Rhenish country.' 



Professor Schaaffhausen also adduced evidence in proof of the existence of man 

 at the time when the craters and large lava-streams near the Rhine were formed. 



6. On the Original Neanderthal Skull. By Professor Schaaffhausen. 



Professor Schaaffhausen expressed his conviction that this skull (which he ex- 

 hibited) is not that of an idiot, nor is its peculiarity the result of disease, but it is 

 a typical form, which represents the lowest degree of development of the human 

 skvill hitherto observed. 



7. On a Palceolithic Stone Implement from Egypt. By H. Stopes, F.G.S. 



The author drew attention to the exceptional position and physical conditions 

 of Egypt, making it probable that the greater number of the prehistoric imple- 

 ments of that country were covered with Nile mud, and consequently difficult to hud. 

 These he deemed sufficient reasons to account for the negative evidence of many 

 authors not having at present been refuted by the discovery of palaeolithic imple- 

 ments. Details were then given of the finding of a remarkably fine palseolith of 

 the true river-drift type, at a distance of half a mile from the Spring of Moses, near 

 Cairo, in latitude 30° 1', longitude 31° 20'. It is of red porphoritic conglomerate, 

 precisely similar to that found at Gebel Achmar, a few miles distant, and upon this 

 fact the author laid considerable stress, as direct evidence that it was made and 

 used in the neighbourhood in which it was picked up. The implement bears traces 

 of considerable wear by blown sand. Its greatest length is 5-5 inches, width 3-8 

 inches, and thickness 1-5. It has the regvdar shape of river-drift palteoliths, although 

 it is thinner and has a finer cutting point than those made of flint ; the cutting edge 

 is chipped and worn by use. It was lying exposed upon the surface, with its best 

 side upwards, and seemed to be in an old dried-up river-bed. It resembles South 

 African pah-eoliths in having two pieces knocked Irom its upper edge. The author 

 then commented upon the value of the discovery in disproving the objections of 

 Marriette, Brugsch, and others as to the existence of the Stone Age in Egypt. 



8. On a Palceolithic Flint Implement from Palestine. By H. Stopes, F.G.S. 



The author described a flint implement of the river-drift type, found by him 

 February 13, 1880, about two and a half miles from Jerusalem, on the road to Beth- 

 lehem. It was by the (so-called) road, lying with many thousands of rough flints 



' C/. meeting of the German Anthrop. Soc. at Strasburg, Aug. 1879. 



