Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
In 1860, when I revisited Liege, twenty-six years after my interview
with Schmerling, I found that several of the caverns described by him
had in the interval been annihilated. Not a vestige, for example, of the
caves of Engis, Chokier, and Goffontaine remained. The calcareous stone,
in the heart of which the cavities once existed, had been quarried away,
and removed bodily for building and lime-making. Fortunately, a great
part of the Engihoul cavern, situated on the right bank of the Meuse,
was still in the same state as when Schmerling delved into it in 1831,
and drew from it the bones of three human skeletons. I determined,
therefore, to examine it, and was so fortunate as to obtain the
assistance of a zealous naturalist of Liege, Professor Malaise, who
accompanied me to the cavern, where we engaged some workmen to break
through the crust of stalagmite, so that we could search for bones in
the undisturbed earth beneath. Bones and teeth of the cave-bear were
soon found, and several other extinct quadrupeds which Schmerling has
enumerated. My companion, continuing the work perseveringly for weeks
after my departure, succeeded at length in extracting from the same
deposit, at the depth of 2 feet below the crust of stalagmite, three
fragments of a human skull, and two perfect lower jaws with teeth, all
associated in such a manner with the bones of bears, large pachyderms,
and ruminants, and so precisely resembling these in colour and state of
preservation, as to leave no doubt in his mind that Man was contemporary
with the extinct animals. Professor Malaise has given figures of the
human remains in the "Bulletin" of the Royal Academy of Belgium for
1860.*
(* Volume 10 page 546.)
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