1871.] A Geological Problem. 337 



of the interments was that of the great cave bear and his 

 contemporaries.* , 



The Committee appointed by the British Association in 

 1864 to explore Kent's Cavern, Torquay, reported in 1867, 

 that in the stalagmitic floor overlying the cave earth, 

 they had found a human tooth and part of an upper human 

 jaw, containing four teeth; and, in 1868 as well as 1869, 

 that in the same continuous sheet of stalagmite they had 

 detected remains of the cave bear, cave hyaena, and rhino- 

 ceros. Moreover, that whilst the human remains were 

 deeply imbedded in the stalagmite, where it was 20 inches 

 thick, some of those of the extinct mammals were not only 

 near its upper surface, but were partially exposed. t 



The case of the famous human jaw of Moulin Quignon, 

 near Abbeville, will probably be remembered by all our 

 readers ; and were we to pass it by in silence, we might be 

 suspected of acquiescing in the opinion that it was an 

 unquestionable forgery. The facts are very briefly as 

 follow : — In March, 1863, a gravel-digger informed the late 

 M. Boucher de Perthes, the distinguished Archaeologist of 

 Abbeville, that at 15 feet below the surface a bone was to 

 be seen projecting about an inch from the face of a cutting 

 then in progress, in a gravel pit at Moulin Quignon. 

 M. de Perthes, accompanied by a friend, proceeded at once 

 to the spot, where they witnessed the extraction of the 

 bone, which proved to be an entire half of a human jaw, 

 containing one tooth. The discovery at once attracted the 

 attention it deserved ; an Anglo-French scientific commis- 

 sion was appointed to investigate it, and after much experi- 

 mentation and discussion, the opinion of a large majority 

 that the jaw was found in an undisturbed portion of the 

 lowest of five superimposed layers of gravel and clay, con- 

 taining unpolished flint implements, and half a yard below 

 fragments of the tooth of an extinct mammal, was embodied 

 in a report drawn up by Professor Milne Edwards, and pre- 

 sented to the Academy of Sciences of Paris in May, 1863. 

 The conclusion, however, was that of a majority only, for a 

 few of the English Commissioners dissented ; and this 

 being the case, though by no means convinced that the 

 minority was right, we doubt the wisdom of an unqualified 

 acceptance of the authenticity of this famous jaw. J 



Such are the statements respecting the inosculation of the 



* See Lyell's Antiquity of Man, pp. 181 — 193; or, Natural History 

 Review, vol. ii., pp. 53 — 71. 



f See Reports British Association, 1867, p. 28 ; 1868, p. 52 ; i86g, p. 204. 

 t See Anthropological Review, vol, i., pp. 166 — 168, 177 — 179, 312 — 335. 

 VOL. VIII. (O.S.) — VOL. I. (N.S.) 2 X 



