205 
ON THE CEANIA OF THE MOST ANCIENT EACES 
OF MEN. 
By Chaeles Caetee Blake, Esq. 
The authenticated discovery of human remains in strata of high 
historical antiquity in the Heathery Burn Cave, near Stanhope, and 
at Muskham in the Valley of the Trent, and the approaching dis- 
cussion which "looms in the distance" of Palaeontology 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 G-ray'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 France, Aurignac in Gascony, 
Muskham in the A^alley of the Trent, the Lake habitations in Switzer- 
land, proofs of man have been found in strata contemporaneous with 
the most recently extinct animals. 
rig. 1. — Front view of the Neanderthal skull (scale i linear). 
Human remains have also been obtained from the Neanderthal, 
from Plau in Mecklenburg, Mewslade in Glamorganshire, Sennen in 
Cornwall, Montrose, Nether Urquhart in Fifeshire, Plymouth, East 
