Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/31

Rh see a note in our Facts about Pompeii, published by Messrs. Hazell, Watson & Viney, London.

Mr. A. Vaughan Jennings, as we have said, in 1892 had an article in the June number of Natural Science concerning The Cave Men of Mentone, which was so peculiarly inaccurate in its facts as to merit a few lines of criticism. First of all he refers to M. Rivière's skeleton of 1872 as if discovered in 1873. It was M. Rivière's monograph that appeared in 1873. Knowing the place, as we have all our life, we can say that he is correct when he affirms that "the east side of the cavern No. 4 has been a good deal cut back by quarrying," although he omits to mention that both sides of the cavern—indeed, the whole face of the cliff—some twenty years ago came to within a couple of yards of the rocks that break the force of the sea. Mr. Jennings, from his statement, shows that he did not see the remains till the 15th of March, and that by that date they were considerably modified, the skull and arms having been removed. We saw the skeletons on March 18th, and according to notes we made at the time the arms were still there; however, we had the opportunity of seeing them on the 23d of February in a very complete state. We also saw the left arm of the third skeleton, that of the woman, bent up, which Mr. Vaughan Jennings particularly says was not the case. In a footnote on M. Rivière's measurements and those mentioned by the papers, Mr. Vaughan Jennings regrets that "the exact measure will probably never be known, as the neck and shoulder region is now destroyed." We are happy to have been able to supply this necessary information, from measurements that we took at the time on the spot, before the skeletons were removed from the earth in which they were imbedded. Later on Mr. Hanbury, of Mortola, very generously bought the skeletons from Abbo and placed them in the latter's cottage with the other remains; this has saved them from further destruction. Mr. Jennings places the 1892 skeletons between the palæolithic and neolithic periods of man, and very rightly deprecates the habit of speaking of these periods with sharp distinctions; thus it is possible that an intermediate race existed, while it is only natural to understand that the formation of neolithic man was merely a series of progressions from earlier forms. On the other hand, the period of time between the existence of palæolithic and neolithic man may not have been so great as has been supposed.

Flint instruments, the product of man, for a long time have been often found in many places. It is merely necessary here to