Page:Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man.djvu/94

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76
GEOLOGICAL POSITION OF NEANDERTHAL SKELETON.
CHAP. V.

hundred feet below the top of the cliff. The accompanying section will give the reader an idea of its position.

Fig. 1

Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man Fig. 1.png

Section of the Neanderthal Cave near Düsseldorf.

a Cavern 60 feet above the Düssel, and 100 feet below the surface of the country at c.

b Loam covering the floor of the cave near the bottom of which the human skeleton was found.

b, c Rent connecting the cave with the upper surface of the country.

d Superficial sandy loam.

e Devonian limestone.

f Terrace, or ledge of rock.


When Dr. Fuhlrott of Elberfeld first examined the cave, he found it to be high enough to allow a man to enter. The width was seven or eight feet, and the length or depth fifteen. I visited the spot in 1860, in company with Dr. Fuhlrott, who had the kindness to come expressly from Elberfeld to be my guide, and who brought with him the original fossil skull, and a cast of the same, which he presented to me. In the interval of three years, between 1857 and 1860, the ledge of rock, f, on which the cave opened, and which was originally twenty feet wide, had been almost entirely quarried away, and, at the rate at which the work of dilapidation was proceeding, its complete destruction seemed near at hand.

In the limestone are many fissures, one of which, still partially filled with mud and stones, is represented in the section at a c as continuous from the cave to the upper