Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/59

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DISCOVERIES IN BRITAIN
51

that of the cave-men and Neolithic races—a conclusion which its stratigraphical position justifies (see Chap. X).

Another human skeleton was found in 1888, in the terrace gravels at Galley Hill, Kent, but for some inscrutable reason it was not reported on, or submitted to expert opinion, till 1895. The bones were then described at the Geological Society of London by Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., as those of an individual who was contemporary with the people who used the flint implements disinterred from the terrace gravels—implements which undoubtedly possess the usual characters of "palæoliths." In the discussion which followed Dr. Newton's conclusion was questioned on the ground of insufficient evidence to prove that the skeleton had not been a more recent burial.

Dr. Garson thus summed up the special characters of the skeleton: "The short stature, the very dolichocephalic skull, the prominent glabella and superciliary ridges, and the well-marked ridges of the skull generally, the absence of prominence of the chin, and the large size of the last molar tooth, which was as large as, if not larger than, the first molar (Fig. 6). The large size of the head of the femur was also peculiar."

Under these circumstances it is manifest that no important deductions can be founded on the anatomical characters of the Galley Hill skull, beyond the fact that, like the other well-attested Quaternary skulls, it is