One of the most famous discoveries of the pre-Lyellian period was the human skeleton found in the cave of Feldhofen, situated at the entrance to a small ravine called Neanderthal, on the right bank of the river Düssel. The opening to the cave was from a small terrace on a steep limestone cliff, about 60 feet above the bed of the river, and 110 feet below the surface of the plateau above. The cave has long ago been quarried away, but its dimensions are reported to have been 16 feet in length, 11 feet in breadth, and 8 feet in height. On the uneven floor of the cave lay a mass of consolidated mud, about five feet in depth, sparingly mixed with rounded fragments of chert, but without stalagmitic deposits. It was while this mud was being removed that the skeleton was encountered. At first no idea was entertained by the workmen of the bones being human, and it was not till several weeks after their discovery that they were recognized as such by Dr. Fuhlrott. By this time many of the bones were dispersed. The skull-cap (Fig. 4), and a few other bones remained, and were at once placed in security. No other animal remains, with the exception of a bear's tooth, were found in the cave. Consequently there are no collateral circumstances, neither archæological, geological nor stratigraphical, which can help to assign a date to the Neanderthal skeleton, so that its antiquity has been determined solely from the osteological characters of the skull-cap. These, however, were found
