266 



CAVE-MEN. 



of album graecum, that is to say, the excrement of hyaenas. 

 Each of these indicates, of course, an old floor, and a sepa- 

 rate period of occupation; so that the presence of, at least, 

 one such floor above some of the flint implements, proves 

 two things ; firstly, that the hyaenas which produced the 

 album graecum occupied the cave after the savages who 

 used the flint instruments ; and, secondly, that these im- 

 plements have not been disturbed by water since the period 

 of the hyaena. 



As regards the Cave-men themselves, we have, unfor- 

 tunately, but very little information. Indeed, although 

 fragmentary human bones have been frequently found, there 

 are, as yet, only two cases on record in which the caves have 

 furnished us with skulls in such a condition as to allow of 

 restoration. One of these was found by Dr. Schmerling in 

 the Cave of Engis, near Liege. ; the other, .by Dr. Fuhlrott, 

 in the Neanderthal, near Dusseldorf ; they will be described 

 in a subsequent chapter. 



It would manifestly be highly imprudent to generalise 

 from two specimens, even if they agreed in their characters, 

 and if their antiquity were undoubted. But it so happens 

 that as regards the Neanderthal specimen, the evidence of 

 antiquity is far from conclusive, and that the two skulls are 

 very dissimilar. 



On the whole, therefore, though we cannot as yet deter- 

 mine what variety or varieties of man then existed, we find 

 in the bone-eaves sufficient, evidence that man was coeval in 

 Europe with the great group of quaternary mammalia. We 

 see, .indeed, that the presence, in ? bone-caves, of ancient 

 implements and human remains, associated with those of 

 extinct mammalia, is no rare or exceptional phenomenon. 

 Nor if we look at the question from a scientific point of 

 view, is there any thing in this that ought to excite our 

 astonishment. Since the period at which these caves 



