LECTURE IX. 255 



caveSj an irrefragable proof tliat the middle stratum of Arcy, 

 with its bones of ruminants and the reindeer, corresponds to 

 that stratum of Lombrive in which the skull was found. 



Let us now turn to Germany. 



In a valley of the Diissel, near Elberfeld, in the so-called 

 Neanderthal, which forms a wild fissure in lime stone, there 

 was a little grotto, about fifteen feet in length, ten feet 

 broad, and eight feet high, opening in an almost perpendicular 

 rock 60' above the level of the valley. From the top the cave 

 could be reached by a steep path which led to a small ledge 

 where the grotto opened. The Neander ravine has been used 

 as a marble quarry, and the left side which contains the grotto 

 is nearly exhausted. The progress of the quarry led to the 

 exploration of the grotto. There was found in it a stone-hard 

 layer of loam, presenting a horizontal surface without calcareous 

 sinter, but with fragments of brown rolled gravel, a dilu- 

 vial deposit which occurs in all caves and grottoes of the 

 Diissel valley, and contains, in some places, bones of the bear, 

 as in Sundwich and Honnethal. In this ossiferous mud, con- 

 taining rolled gravel, two feet below the surface were found the 

 bones of a human skeleton, with the skull lying in the same 

 horizontal plane towards the entrance. The loam adhered so 

 strongly, that the workmen took no notice of the bones, but 

 scattered them about, believing them to be the bones of bears, 

 until Prof. Fuhlrott of Elberfeld, to whom we are indebted 

 for an account of this discovery, declared them to be human, 

 and saved from further destruction the cranium, the femoral 

 and humeral bones, a clavicle, a portion of the pelvis, the 

 scapula, and several fragments of the ribs. The bones adhere 

 strongly to the tongue and are covered on the surface with 

 minute spots, which, under the magnifying glass, proved to be 

 groups of dendritical markings, as also seen upon the bear bones 

 of the neighbouring caves. Though these markings afford no 

 absolute proof of antiquity, such arborescent infiltrations of 

 metallic matter have also been observed in Roman bones, and 

 as dendrites may be rapidly formed under favourable circum- 

 stances by the introduction from the loam of salts of iron 

 and manganese, they still furnish an important indication, inas- 



