320 G. G. Mac Curdy — Significance of the Piltdown Skull. 



somewhere south of the Scilly Islands ; and the same race 

 would have made common hunting ground of this great valley 

 system ; for in a gravel terrace at Abbeville, d'Ault du Mesnil 

 years ago found remains of practically the same fauna ; and in 

 a very old high-level gravel terrace at Amiens, Commont has 

 noted the presence of a rude pre-Chellean flint industry akin 

 to that at Piltdowm. We may, therefore, reasonably expect to 

 find in the Somme valley the osseous remains of this old race. 



In Spain, at Torralba, near the crest of the Sierra Ministra 

 east of Madrid, the Marquis of Cerralbo has recently uncovered 

 a very ancient camp site that has yielded a pre-Chellean and 

 Chellean industry mingled with the bones of possibly the same 

 elephant, horse, and deer as were found at Piltdown. Both 

 bones and implements occur so plentifully that the Marquis 

 may yet be so fortunate as to turn out a human skull, for the 

 site was not yet half exhausted on the occasion of my visit to 

 Torralba last summer. 



Twenty years elapsed between the finding of Pithecanthro- 

 pus and Eoanthrojpus. During the intervening period only 

 one discovery of human osseous remains approaching these in 

 importance was made : the lower jaw from the Mauer sands 

 near Heidelberg, found in 1907. It is too early to say just 

 what ethnic relations existed among these three ancestral forms ; 

 whether they represent links in one chain or in separate chains. 

 In point of age the Piltdown skull probably belongs to an 

 intermediate stage. All three are older by far than Homo 

 neanderthalensis, which in turn is older than the artistically 

 inclined cave men who decorated their haunts with engravings 

 and frescoes of their favorite game animals, the bison, horse, 

 mammoth, and reindeer. 



Mr. Dawson and his associates are to be commended for the 

 exercise of a diligent patience worthy of Darwin himself. The 

 first piece was found about 'the time Schoetensack announced 

 his discovery of the Heidelberg jaw. Mr. Dawson simply 

 kept quiet and continued his search for more evidence. Years 

 elapsed between the finding of two pieces that would fit 

 together, and only last summer were enough found to meet the 

 requirements set for themselves by the discoverer and Dr. 

 Woodward. Thus have they quietly but none the less thor- 

 oughly built one more pier for the bridge that is to connect 

 the present with the shores where the infancy of the race was 

 cradled and its childhood played. 



