the time of the Celts and Germans, and were in all probability derived
from one of the wild races of North-western Europe, spoken of by Latin
writers; and which were encountered as autochthones by the German
immigrants. And 3rdly. That it was beyond doubt that these human
relics were traceable to a period at which the latest animals of the
diluvium still existed; but that no proof of this assumption, nor
consequently of their so-termed 'fossil' condition, was afforded by the
circumstances under which the bones were discovered.

FIG. 23.--The Engis skull viewed from above (A) and in front (B).

"As Dr. Fuhlrott has not yet published his description of these
circumstances, I borrow the following account of them from one of his
letters. 'A small cave or grotto, high enough to admit a man, and
about 15 feet deep from the entrance, which is 7 or 8 feet wide, exists
in the southern wall of the gorge of the Neanderthal, as it is termed,
at a distance of about 100 feet from the Dussel, and about 60 feet
above the bottom of the valley. In its earlier and uninjured
condition, this cavern opened upon a narrow plateau lying in front of
it, and from which the rocky wall descended almost perpendicularly into
the river. It could be reached, though with difficulty, from above.
The uneven floor was covered to a thickness of 4 or 5 feet with a
deposit of mud, sparingly intermixed with rounded fragments of chert.
In the removing of this deposit, the bones were discovered. The skull
was first noticed, placed nearest to the entrance of the cavern; and
further in, the other bones, lying in the same horizontal plane. Of
this I was assured, in the most positive terms, by two labourers who
were employed to clear out the grotto, and who were questioned by me on
the spot. At first no idea was entertained of the bones being human;
and it was not till several weeks after their discovery that they were