Palmolithic Man in Africa. 



487 



of Oran, and about ten miles to the north of Tlemcen, on the plateau 

 of Eemchi, about a mile to the south of the Eiver Isser, lies a small 

 lake known as Lac Karar. It occupies a depression in lacustrine 

 limestone of comparatively recent geological date, superimposed on 

 beds of Lower Miocene Age. The level of the water, which is some 

 15° centigrade warmer than that of the ordinary springs of the dis- 

 trict, and appears to be derived from some deep-seated source, seems to 

 be about 600 feet higher than that of the Eiver Isser. The lake 

 originally filled a much larger part of the depression than it now does, 

 and from its old bed a considerable amount of material has of late 

 years been extracted for the Service des Fonts et Chaussees. This 

 material consists of sand and gravel rich in iron pyrites, in the midst 

 of which lie, pell-mell, bones of animals and stone implements fashioned 

 by the hand of man. 



These have for some years been diligently collected by M. Louis 

 Gentil, a geologist, .and form the subject of a memoir that has just ap- 

 peared in ' I'Anthropologie '* by my friend M. Marcellin Boule, of the 

 Galerie de Paleontologie at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. Some 200 

 specimens of implements have been submitted to him, of various sizes, 

 and all or nearly all of well-known palasolithic forms, including several 

 with a broad chisel-like end, of which examples have been found in 

 the laterite of Madras and the gravels of Madrid. They are for the 

 most part formed of an eocene quartzite, though some smaller speci- 

 mens of the type known as that of " le Moustier " are formed of flint. 

 The fades of these latter is not so distinctly palaeolithic as that of the 

 former, of which some, through the kindness of M. Marcellin Boule, 

 are exhibited. 



The most important part of the discovery is that which relates to 

 the mammalian remains found with the implements. These are of 

 elephant, rhinoceros, horse, hippopotamus, pig, ox, sheep, and certain 

 cervidse. I will not detain the Society with the details given in 

 M. Boule's memoir, but I may call attention to the fact that the 

 elephant is not the African elephant, but one more nearly related to 

 the quaternary or even pliocene elephants of Europe, to which the 

 designation Atlanticus has been given. Some teeth seem closely allied 

 to those of E. meridionalis and even jE. armeniacus. Having regard to 

 the whole fauna, M. Boule arrives at the conclusion that it is identical 

 with that of the fossiliferous deposits of Algeria, which from their 

 topographical or stratigraphical characteristics have been assigned to 

 the Quaternary or Pleistocene Period. He also cites other instances 

 in Algeria, such as Ternifine and a station near Aboukir, in which 

 palseolithic implements have been found associated with the remains of 

 a similar pleistocene fauna. 



Altogether, these recent discoveries in Northern Africa tend immensely 

 * Tome XI, 1900. 



