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THE GEOLOGIST. 



longitudinal contour of the Neanderthal skull and that of some of those 

 skulls from the tumuli at Borreby, very accurate drawings of which have 

 been made by Mr. Busk, is very close. The occiput is quite as retreating, 

 the supraciliary arches are nearly as prominent, and the skull is as low. 

 Furthermore, the Borreby skull resembles the Neanderthal form more 

 closely than any of the Australian skulls do, by the much more rapid re- 

 trocession of the forehead ; on the other hand, the Borreby skulls are all 

 somewhat broader, in proportion to their length, than the Neanderthal 

 skull, while some attain that proportion of breadth to length (80: 100) 

 which constitutes brachycephaly." 



" In conclusion, I may say that the fossil remains of man hitherto dis- 

 covered do not seem to me to take us appreciably nearer to that lower pi- 

 thecoid form, by the modification of which he has probably become what 

 he is. And considering what is now known of the most ancient races of 

 men, — seeing that they fashioned flint axes, and flint knives, and bone 

 skewers, of much the same pattern as those fabricated by the lowest 

 savages at the present day, and that we have every reason to believe the 

 habits and modes of living of such people to have remained the same from 

 the time of the mammoth and the tichorhine rhinoceros till now, — I do not 

 know that this result is other than might be expected." 



"Where, then, must we look for primseval man? Was the oldest 

 Homo sapiens pliocene or miocene, or yet more ancient ? In still older 

 strata, do the fossilized bones of an ape more anthropoid, or a man more 

 pithecoid, than any yet known, aw r ait the researches of some unborn palae- 

 ontologist ? 



" Time will show. But in the meanwhile, if any form of the doctrine of 

 progressive development is correct, we must extend by long epochs the 

 most liberal estimate that has yet been made of the antiquity of man." 



Such are a few of the more interesting passages which we have selected 

 from Professor Huxley's work. The subject has been discussed in the 

 ' Geologist' frequently during the last two years,* and we have no doubt 

 that the publication of Professor Huxley's work, although it appears late 

 in the month of February, will not fail to arouse the attention of geologists 

 and anthropologists. 



* Vol. iv. (1861), p. 396 ; vol. v. (1862), pp. 187, 201, 205, 303, 313, 314, 424, etc. 



