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ON THE CEAXIA OF THE MOST ANCIEXT EACES 

 OE MEN. 



By Chables Caetek Blake, Esq. 



The authenticated discovery of human remains in strata of high 

 historical antiquity in the Heatherj Burn Caye, near Stanhope, and 

 at ^luskham in the Yalley of the Trent, and the approaching dis- 

 cussion which "looms in the distance" of Palseontology consequent 

 upon the proximate publication of Sir Charles Lyell's 'Antiquity of 

 Man,' induce me to offer a few observations on the osteological nature 

 of the evidences at present afforded to us of man contemporary with 

 the mammoths, with a view, if possible, to determine the grade of the 

 individuals whose remains have been preserved in suprapliocene strata. 



The deposits on the banks of the Somme (Abbeville, St. Acheul, 

 St. Eoch), at Grenelle near Paris, at Hoxne in Suffolk, at Brixham 

 and Kent's Hole in the south-west of England, under Gray's-Inn- 

 lane in Middlesex, at Maccagnone in Sicily, the Kjokkenmoddings in 

 Denmark, and at Wookey Hole in the Mendips, indicate to us the 

 existence of man in a low state of civilization, as proved by his 

 weapons, but of whom the osteological evidences have not yet been 

 discovered. In these deposits the bones of extinct mammalia are 

 found, as well as a more or less percentage of animals of existing 

 species. 



At Engis in Belgium, Massat in Erance, Aurignac in Grascony, 

 Muskham in the Yalley of the Trent, the Lake habitations in Switzer- 

 land, proofs of man have been found in strata contemporaneous with 

 the most recently extinct animals. 



Fig. 1. — Front view of the Neanderthal sknll (scale i linear). 



Human remains have also been obtained from the Neanderthal, 

 from Plau in Mecklenburg, Mewslade in Glamorganshire, Seunen in 

 Cornwall, Montrose, Nether Urquhart in Eifeshire, Plymouth, East 



