208 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



posit above, abounding in Cyclas, opercula of Bithynia ?, and 

 traces of other Planorbis-like shells, very small flint-pebbles 

 and occasional peaty layers 4 



Total 93 



COERESPONDENCE. 



Age of Prehistoric Man. 



Sie, — In Professor King's valuable paper on the " Glacial and Post- 

 glacial Deposits," in tlie ' Geologist ' of last month, the learned author of 

 this most interesting paper says: " The genus Homo belongs to both the 

 glacial and post-glacial period ; it was represented as early as the close of 

 the subaqueous epoch, or the beginning of the second subaerial division of 

 the glacial period, by a low form or extinct species, a view strongly 

 countenanced by the Neanderthal skeleton, as well as the rudely chipped 

 flint-implements occurring in the elephant-gravels of Amiens, Hoxne, and 

 other places. Probably a higher type existed at the same time, as indicated 

 by the skulls found in the Engis caves near Liege." 



I must venture to express an opinion that the theory which assigns the 

 Engis and Neanderthal skeletons to any particular division of the glacial 

 period is scarcely warranted by the facts before us. Without wishing to 

 throw any doubt on the demonstrated antiquity of the Engis skull, of which 

 the age is fully proven, in the words of Huxley, to carry us back to the 

 " further side of the vague biological limit which separates the present 

 geological epoch from that which immediately preceded it," I would wish 

 to ask what is the geological or palseontological proof of the following 

 propositions : — 



1. That the Neanderthal skeleton was probably coaeval with the remains 

 from the Liege caverns. 



2. That it was coseval with the "high-level" flint-implement gravels of 

 the Somme valley or of Hoxne, 



3. That the species of man to which it belonged is extinct, i. e. different 

 from a race having the same general cranial character as some existing 

 Australians. 



Sir Charles Lyell, in his ' Antiquity of Man,' remarks justly that the 

 Neanderthal skull has given rise to surprise "because, having no 

 such decided claims to antiquity [as the skull from Engis], it departs 

 so widely from the normal standard of humanity ;" and concludes his 

 remarks on the evidences thus: "If we conceive the [IN eanderthal] 

 cranium to be very ancient, it exemplifies a less advanced stage of pro- 

 gressive development and improvement. If it be a comparatively modern 

 race, owing its peculiarities of conformation to degeneracy, it is an illus- 

 tration of what the botanists have called ' atavism,' or the tendency 

 of varieties to revert to an ancestral type, which type, in proportion to its 

 antiquity, would be of lower grade." 



The fact cannot be too prominently brought before us, and must again 

 be borne in mind, that no flint-implements or any other works of art were 

 found in the Neanderthal cave, and that the tusk of bear which was found 



* Page 89. 



t Page 92. 



