Vol. 51.] FROM PALAEOLITHIC GBAVELS IN KENT. 527 



hardly expect to obtain a much, better attested instance than in the 

 one before the meeting ; the silty clay-bed in which the fossils 

 appear to have been found was just the kind of deposit in which 

 bones were commonly met with in river-drift, and they probably 

 owed their preservation to the deposit being less permeable than 

 the gravel above them. With regard to the skull, the river-drift 

 period was of such long duration that there was time enough for 

 the migration of many races of men into this country, and there was 

 every probability that different types of Palaeolithic people lived at 

 the same time in N.W. Europe. As a believer in the continuity of 

 man's existence there from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic period, 

 it was not surprising to him to find a skull in the drift which showed 

 affinities both with some of the Palaeolithic skulls and those of the 

 early Neolithic period as in the specimen before them. 



Prof. Sollas regretted that the evidence for the absence of inter- 

 ment was not more perfect. Mr. Heys had only seen the skull in 

 position for a few minutes, but Mr. Elliott's evidence was less open 

 to question. The anatomical characters, as described by Mr. New- 

 ton, seemed, however, to show that the skull belonged to the same 

 type as the Neanderthal and Spy skulls, the latter of which was 

 clearly Palaeolithic ; it was hence highly probable that the Galley 

 Hill specimen, which occurred along with Palaeolithic implements, 

 was in a natural position and had not been interred. 



The Author, in reply, thanked the speakers for their kind criti- 

 cisms. The object of the discussion was to elicit truth and eliminate 

 error. In the present instance, he believed that the chain of 

 evidence of the Palaeolithic age of the remains was complete ; 

 although some of the links were not so strongly wrought as could 

 be wished. 



Q.J. G. S. No. 203. 2» 



