Not far from these caves are those of the Lesse Valley, in which Dupont
discovered, in 1864, three different layers of human and other remains,
the lowest of which contained the bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and
other extinct animals, together with flint instruments of the rudest
type, instruments of reindeer horn, and a human lower jaw with a marked
resemblance to the lower jaw of the higher apes. Another discovery at
some little distance away from these caves was made in 1857 in what
is called the Neanderthal Cave, in the valley of the Düssel, between
Düsseldorf and Elberfeld, which is important, not so much as an
indication of the length of time that man has lived on the earth, as
of the close resemblance existing between the skulls of human beings
in the early Pleistocene era and the skulls of apes. The discovery
consisted of a human skull and a number of human bones, together with
the bones of the rhinoceros, which latter were subsequently unearthed.
The skull was of such a character as to raise the question of whether
it was human or not, the forehead being narrow and very low and the
projection of the supra-orbital ridges enormously great. The long bones
of the skeleton agreed with those of men of the present day in respect
to length, but were of extraordinary thickness, and the ridges for the
attachment of muscles were developed in an unusual degree, showing that
the individual was possessed of great muscular strength, especially
in the thoracic neighbourhood. Drs. Schaafhausen and Fuhlrott pointed
out that the depression of the forehead was not due to any artificial
pressure, as the whole skull was symmetrical, and that the individual
must have been distinguished by an extraordinarily small cerebral
development as well as uncommon corporeal strength. Professor Huxley
considers this Neanderthal skull to be the most ape-like one he ever
beheld, and Busk, a great authority, gives valuable reasons for
supposing it to be the skull of an individual occupying a position
midway between the man and the gorilla or chimpanzee. Huxley has
carefully compared the Engis and Neanderthal skulls, and his remarks
upon them are given in their entirety in Lyell’s “Antiquity of Man.”
From these remarks we gather that the Engis skull was dolichocephalic
in form, extreme length 7.7 inches, extreme breadth not more than 5.25
inches, forehead well arched, superciliary prominences well but not
abnormally developed, horizontal circumference 20½ inches, longitudinal
arc from nasal spine to occipital protuberance 13¾ inches, transverse
arc from one auditory foramen to the other, across the middle of the
sagittal suture, 13 inches. The Neanderthal skull is so different
from the Engis skull that Huxley says “it [Neanderthal] might well
be supposed to belong to a distinct race of mankind.” It is 8 inches
in extreme length, 5.75 inches in breadth, and only 3.4 inches from
the glabello-occipital line to the vertex; the longitudinal arc is 12
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