Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/44

18 de Perthes found some precisely similar flint implements at Abbeville. Since then the finds have been so numerous that the subject has become one of common and familiar knowledge. In the heart of London, as well as in many parts of the country, palæolithic flint implements have been found in enormous numbers, in association with bones of extinct animals, and in circumstances proving their immense antiquity. These animals include the Hippopotamus, Mammoth, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Lion, Wild Cat, Bear, Hyæna, Bison, and Wild Horse. Mr. Worthington Smith has discovered, at Caddington, thirty miles from London, "an undisturbed living and working place of primeval Man," and has traced there, as he had previously done at Stoke Newington, in the north-east of London, a palæolithic floor, that is, a thin stratum of flint, in some places full of flint implements and flakes, and extending over an area of several miles.

We have thus acquired, from all parts of the British Islands, abundant evidence of Man's workmanship, from which much may be gathered as to his manners and customs. Has there been any discovery of early remains of Man himself? If the answer to the question were a decided negative it would not be surprising; for there are many probabilities against the long preservation of human bones.

This, indeed, is an argument that has been strongly used against the authenticity of certain remains found in the year 1888, at Galley Hill, near Swanscombe, in Kent. I take the following summary of the discovery from the useful work on 'Ethnology,' by Prof. A.H. Keane:—

"Nearly perfect skeleton found by Mr. R. Elliott and Mr. Matthew Heys in situ at a depth of 8 feet in the Pleistocene high-level gravels about 90 feet above the Thames, with numerous palæolithic implements and remains of extinct mammals close by; skull hyperdolichocephalic, extremely long, narrow and much depressed, with height and breadth indexes 67 and 64; glabella and brow-ridges prominent; forehead somewhat receding; all chief sutures obliterated; three lower molars and two premolars in place; last lower molar, which in Neolithic skulls is smaller, is in this specimen as large, if not larger than the first; height about 5 ft. 1 in.; altogether most nearly related to the Neanderthal, Spy and Naulette types (Dr. Garson); 'is the best