ich it was found associated; and that
the Neanderthal skull is of great, though uncertain, antiquity. Whatever
be the geological age of the latter skull, I conceive it is quite safe
(on the ordinary principles of paleontological reasoning) to assume
that the former takes us to, at least, the further side of the vague
biological limit, which separates the present geological epoch from
that which immediately preceded it. And there can be no doubt that the
physical geography of Europe has changed wonderfully, since the bones
of Men and Mammoths, Hyaenas and Rhinoceroses were washed pell-mell into
the cave of Engis.

The skull from the cave of Engis was originally discovered by Professor
Schmerling, and was described by him, together with other human remains
disinterred at the same time, in his valuable work, 'Recherches sur les
ossemens fossiles decouverts dans les cavernes de la Province de
Liege', published in 1833 (p. 59, 'et seq.'), from which the following
paragraphs are extracted, the precise expressions of the author being,
as far as possible, preserved.

"In the first place, I must remark that these human remains, which are
in my possession, are characterized like thousands of bones which I have
lately been disinterring, by the extent of the decomposition which
they have undergone, which is precisely the same as that of the extinct
species: all, with a few exceptions, are broken; some few are rounded,
as is frequently found to be the case in fossil remains of other
species. The fractures are vertical or oblique; none of them are eroded;
their colour does not differ from that of other fossil bones, and varies
from whitish yellow to blackish. All are lighter than recent bones, with
the exception of those which have a calcareous incrustation, and the
cavities of which are filled with such matter.

"The cranium which I have caused to be figured, Plate I., Figs. 1, 2, is
that of an old person. The sutures are beginning to be effaced: all the
facial bones are wanting, and of the temporal bones only a fragment of
that of the right side is preserved.

"The face and the base of the cranium had been detached before the
skull was deposited in the cave, for we were unable to find those parts,
though the whole cavern was regularly searched. The cranium was met with
at a depth of a metre and a half [five feet nearly], hidden under
an osseous breccia, composed of the remains of small animals, and
containing one rhinoceros tus