was covered, and which
were first noticed upon them by Professor Meyer. To this communication
I appended a brief report on the results of my anatomical examination
of the bones. The conclusions at which I arrived were:--1st. That
the extraordinary form of the skull was due to a natural conformation
hitherto not known to exist, even in the most barbarous races. 2nd. That
these remarkable human remains belonged to a period antecedent to the
time of the Celts and Germans, and were in all probability derived
from one of the wild races of North-western Europe, spoken of by Latin
writers; and which were encountered as autochthones by the German
immigrants. And 3rdly. That it was beyond doubt that these human relics
were traceable to a period at which the latest animals of the diluvium
still existed; but that no proof of this assumption, nor consequently
of their so-termed 'fossil' condition, was afforded by the circumstances
under which the bones were discovered.

[Illustration: FIG. 24.--The Engis skull viewed from above (A) and in
front (B).]

"As Dr. Fuhlrott has not yet published his description of these
circumstances, I borrow the following account of them from one of his
letters. 'A small cave or grotto, high enough to admit a man, and about
15 feet deep from the entrance, which is 7 or 8 feet wide, exists in
the southern wall of the gorge of the Neanderthal, as it is termed, at a
distance of about 100 feet from the Dussel, and about 60 feet above
the bottom of the valley. In its earlier and uninjured condition, this
cavern opened upon a narrow plateau lying in front of it, and from which
the rocky wall descended almost perpendicularly into the river. It could
be reached, though with difficulty, from above. The uneven floor was
covered to a thickness of 4 or 5 feet with a deposit of mud, sparingly
intermixed with rounded fragments of chert. In the removing of this
deposit, the bones were discovered. The skull was first noticed, placed
nearest to the entrance of the cavern; and further in, the other bones,
lying in the same horizontal plane. Of this I was assured, in the most
positive terms, by two labourers who were employed to clear out the
grotto, and who were questioned by me on the spot. At first no idea was
entertained of the bones being human; and it was not till several weeks
after their discovery that they were recognised as such by me, and
placed in security. But, as the importance of the discovery was not at