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all that he makes to be preserved, it may be inferred that his collection was of the utmost use to M. Broca in assisting him in the completion of his series, containing, as we are informed it does, eyes of Chinese, Negroes, Hindoos, Peruvians, Arabs, Egyptians, and inhabitants of all parts of Europe, all of which were freely placed at M. Broca's disposal.

(To be continued.)

THE FOSSIL MAN OF ABBEVILLE AGAIN.

WE have received a copy of L'Abbevillois, of the 19th July, which calls attention to the following facts, which are likely again to revive the much debated question relating to the Moulin-Quignon and Mesnières remains.

The neglected condition of a quarry, in which work was interrupted from the end of 1863 until May 1864, permitted M. Boucher de Perthes to pursue his researches without the intervention of any person. The workmen did not participate in these new discoveries; everything was seen in place, and taken from the bed by his own hand.

For a long while it had been remarked that osseous remains had been ordinarily enclosed in sandy agglomerations, which thereby often escaped observation by the geologists and by the excavators themselves. They noticed that the bones were incapable of recognition, and termed them cailloux pourris. The anatomists to whom they were shewn admitted that they were actually organic remains, but found they were too much broken or deteriorated to ascertain their

exact nature.

Things were in this position since the discovery of the jaw. This confirmed M. de Perthes in his opinion that these neglected remains had more importance than was considered, and that there also were some human remains amongst them. With the perseverance by which he is known, he continued to explore the bed of Moulin-Quignon, making more than forty excavations from June 1863 to the present

time.

Numerous fragments of human and animal bones discovered by him at two, three, and four metres from the surface, in undisturbed soil, and where there existed neither éboulement, nor fissure, nor even a sandpipe, were the recompense of this long labour. But, as it was not sufficient that these remains should be discovered by himself alone, it was necessary, in order to obviate contradiction,

that others should discover them with him. The 24th of last April he asked M. Jules Dubois, doctor, of the Hôtel Dieu at Abbeville, to assist at one of these diggings. M. Dubois hastened to accept this invitation.

Many fragments of rolled bone too small for definition, were then disinterred at two metres from the surface, in the yellow-brown bed. At sixty centimetres lower, M. Dubois saw in place a bone eight centimetres in length, which, disembarrassed from the matrix, was recognised by him as a human os sacrum.

The excavation was then directed to the other end of the quarry, where a bed of yellowish-grey sand, called sable à gre, is shewn dividing the brown bed, a bed so hard, that here the hand is no longer sufficient, and the pickaxe must be employed. A human tooth, partly embedded in its sandy matrix, was by them seen in place and extracted from the bed by M. de Perthes, with all the silex which was fixed to it.

On the 1st May another excavation was made by M. de Perthes and M. Dubois. The ferruginous bed on the right hand afforded them, at a depth of 2 metres 25 centimetres of depth, three very damaged fragments of skull, but probably human. The grey bed on the left hand gave them some other bones, not yet determined, and a fragment of human tooth.

On the 12th May, M. Hersent Duval, owner of the quarry, and well known to geologists for the entirely disinterested courtesy which he affords to explorers on his land, being on the spot, desired to assist in the excavation, and he himself also was able to see in place at 2 metres 30 centimetres of depth, and to extract with his hand, a fragment of human skull.

On the 17th, M. Martin, curé of St. Gilles, formerly professor of rhetoric and of geology at the seminary of St. Riquier, and of whom no person here will deny the great knowledge, and M. l'Abbé Dergny, member of the Société d'Emulation, united with M. de Perthes to carry on an excavation. It was crowned with entire success. After being assured of the normal state of the soil, and of its being undisturbed, and having examined various fragments which were detached from the bed before their arrival, they saw in place and dug out, without the intervention of workmen, a bone which, disembarrassed from the matrix, was discovered to be a human skull, of which the strange depression of the superior part struck them exceedingly. The edge of this skull, worn by rubbing, demonstrated its antiquity, and these gentlemen did not doubt that it was coeval with the origin of the bed. Monday, July 9th, a commission, composed of MM. Sauvage, adjunct to the mayor of Abbeville, L. Trancart, proprietor and mayor of

Laviers, Auguste de Caïen, avocat, Marcotte, librarian and curator of the museum, Jules Dubois, already named, all members of the Society of Emulation, made an excavation, of which the results were equally conclusive. Many fragments of human bone were seen in situ and obtained by them from the deposit.

A more formal verification was accordingly contemplated. On the 16th July, the same commission again met, adding to it M. Buteux, formerly member of the General Council of the Somme, who is about to be decorated with the legion of honour for his valuable geological labours, M. de Mercey, a well known geologist, who came expressly from Paris, M. le Baron de Varicourt, chamberlain of the king of Bavaria, who came from Amiens, M. Girot, professor of physics and of geology at the college of Abbeville, M. de Villepoix, member of the Société d'Emulation, M. Alexandre Catel, M. Oswald Dimpre, and many other persons who united spontaneously with the commission, and of whom we regret that the names are unknown to us.

By this reunion of men, all friends of science and of truth, an excavation was made, and carried down to the chalk; many human bones, one of which was found actually on the chalk, were seen in place and collected by the commission. All these bones, amongst which the remains of animals are found, will be the object of a special study which Dr. Dubois has undertaken at the wish of the commission.

M. Boucher de Perthes, in the pursuit of his anthropological discoveries at Moulin-Quignon, has made one which geologists will not the less appreciate; these are marine shells exceedingly rolled, and for the most part reduced to the state of small white pebbles, very much resembling those of the flints, with which they might be confounded. He discovered them in the brown and grey beds, at 1 metre 50 centimetres to 3 metres from the surface, and mixed with the bones. He thinks that in the careful study of the other beds of the diluvium, and especially those where chipped flints have been discovered, human remains should also be found, otherwise so difficult to be distinguished from the rough flints of which they have taken the colour and nearly the form by the portions of sand, gravel, and small pebbles which attach to their anfractuosities, and of which they form a part.

P.S. We learn that amongst the bones collected by M. de Perthes are found two fragments of an upper jaw, and one almost entire lower jaw, also human, and which, it is said, resembles in form much that of the 28th March, 1863; it was 4 metres 30 centimetres of depth, and 22 metres from the spot where this last was discovered.

[We abstain at present from offering any comment on the above. EDITOR.]

223

Miscellanea Anthropologica.

Prize Anthropological Memoir. The Paris Anthropological Society's triennial prize of five hundred francs, founded by Ernest Godard, will be awarded in May 1865. The prize will be adjudged for the best original memoir on a subject connected with anthropology. Manuscripts sent in for competition may be written either in French, English, or Latin, and printed memoirs in either of these languages, or German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish. The essays must be sent in before January 5th next year, addressed to the society's secretary, No. 3 Rue de l'Abbaye, Paris.

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The Neanderthal Skull. [Extract from a letter received by Mr. C. Carter Blake from Dr. Pruner Bey.] Regarding the Neanderthal man, it is indeed possible that the rachitism discovered by M. Meyer may have had its influence on the development of the frontal sinuses. The interior cast is remarkable for the right ascension of the frontal lobes of the brain, so that the expansion of the above-mentioned cavities has not at least influenced the human characters of man. There is besides this to be observed on the upper surface of the same lobes what you might call an "affaissement" of the gyri, which you attribute to the age of the individual, because you see the same on the cast of the illustrious Dr. Gall's skull, in my possession. For all the rest, chiefly as regards proportions, this interior cast corresponds nearest, as you observed, to that of a modern Irishman. Only in the last, which belonged to a younger individual, the gyri are more turgescent and the vertex is a little more elevated. Since I had the honour to write you my last, Providence has favoured me with the acquisition of a specimen which completes the proofs of the Celtic origin of the Neanderthal man. It is the frontal bone of a very ancient Celt, obtained from a tumulus in France, and belongs to a very young individual. Still, the frontal sinuses lying open, shew on the exterior and in the interior such a development, that this specimen, with its depressed forehead, may form a link, with others in my possession, to shew the progressive and regressive state of this particularity in ancient Celtic skulls. That this specimen, too, belongs to a highly dolichocephalous person, is evident on the first inspection.

9th July, 1864.

"Yours, most respectfully and truly,
"PRUNER BEY."

Recent Discoveries of Kjökkenmöddings.-The following letters have recently appeared in the pages of a contemporary :—

"Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 21. "During the last winter session of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, the Rev. J. Ambrose, rector of the parish of St. Margaret's Bay, a district lying on the Atlantic seaboard of this colony, brought to the notice of the Institute the existence of extensive beds of refuse

shells and bones, mixed with fragments of rude pottery, and perfect and imperfect flint arrow and spear heads. Gifted with an inquiring mind, the gentleman in question naturally considered that their occurrence was not a matter of chance; and, following up the subject, he ascertained that similar beds had been known to exist on the shores of Denmark and the adjacent isles, and that they had received the name of kjökkenmöddings, or kitchen-middings, from being heaps of refuse shells, bones, etc., thrown aside by the primitive races of men who, in days of remote antiquity, visited annually, or dwelt continuously, in such positions. On perusing an article published in the Report of the Smithsonian Institute for 1860, which gave an interesting account of the kitchen-middings of Europe as surveyed by the Danish archæologists, a perfect resemblance to those of the Nova Scotian coast was at once perceived, in so far at least as the few specimens then obtained from these heaps proved.

"To endeavour to make a thorough search, and prove the nature of these deposits, the Council of the Institute of Natural Science decided upon having a field meeting on the spot where the kitchen-middings lay; and accordingly, on the 11th of June last, a large party proceeded by land from Halifax, the capital of the province, to St. Margaret's Bay, which is distant, in a S.S. W. direction, about twenty-two miles. This bay is exceedingly spacious, runs inland some eight or ten miles, and is in breadth, perhaps, five or six miles. A few islands stand at the entrance as well as at its head, and long low promontories, clothed with spruce, birch, and maple, stretch into the water at the N.E. corner, forming snug coves and sheltered strands. It is on the shore of one of these minor bays, having a sandy beach where canoes could be hauled up easily and safely, that the principal kjökkenmödding, found by Mr. Ambrose, lay, on a rising knoll some 20 feet above the level of the bay at high-water mark. It forms part of a grass field belonging to a farm-house hard by; and according to the statement of the farmer, and the appearace it presents, has been submitted to little, if any, disturbance at the hand of man. The deposit appears to have extended about fifty yards or more in length, by a well defined breadth of eight yards. Its surface is irregularly depressed and dotted over, on its western extremity, with granitic boulders of no great size. The soil which covers the mass is similar to that of the field in which it occurs, though, perhaps, a little darker in colour. It grows common meadow-grass and ordinary field plants, and its depth does not exceed two or three inches when the shell deposit appears, presenting a layer of compact shells, perfect and imperfect, in which lie bones of animals and birds, flint and quartz arrow and spear heads, large and small teeth, and broken pieces of very roughly-made pottery, bearing evident traces of attempt at ornament. This pottery was very dark in colour, and contained in its substance grains of granitic sand and mica in quantity. From the pieces of rim obtained, judging from their curvature, the earthen vessels could scarcely have exceeded the dimensions of a quart bowl. These bowls or cups must have been in common use, as the fragments occur in some plenty. No traces of implements denoting any connexion with the

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