ity of the bank of a river of considerable size, the Bengawan, or Solo. They usually consist here of a sandstone of slight consistency which, in its deeper layers, at about the level of the river during the dry season, becomes coarser and coarser as more and more lapilli or volcanic stones form part of its composition. The bones are found throughout the entire thickness of the sandstone strata, being very numerous in the lower half, and most so in the stratum, about 1 meter thick, in which the lapilli are found. In the conglomerate which lies under this I found but few, and none at all in the subjacent argillaceous layer.
The four fragments of the skeleton of Pithecanthropus were found in different years, because, on account of the rise in the river during every rainy season, the excavations were necessarily suspended and could not be resumed until the next dry season. Besides, in the same working season one fragment was found later than the other, because the stone had to be removed cautiously in layers and by marked-off areas.
The four fragments were, however, found at exactly the same level in the entirely untouched lapilli stratum (fig. 1). They were therefore deposited at the same time; that is to say, they are of the same age. The teeth were distant from the skull from 1 to, at most, 3 meters; the femur was 15 meters away. The quite sharp relief of their surface does not support the theory that they have been washed out from some older layer and then embedded for a second time. They were found at the place of their original deposit. Besides they all show exactly the same state of preservation and of petrefaction as do all other bones that have been taken from this particular stratum at Trinil.[1] Their specific gravity (sp. gr. of compact tissue=2.456) is much greater than that of unpetrified bones (sp. gr. of compact tissue= 1.930). The femur weighs 1 kilogram, therefore considerably more than double the weight of a recent human femur of the same size; the medullary cavity is partly filled with a stony mass. The eroded upper surface which the skullcap and not the femur shows occurred in the bed where it was found, appearing on many bones excavated near the skullcap, and is caused by infiltration of water through the cliff at that place.
Associated with these bones I also found very numerous remains of a small axis like species of Cervus, frequently, also, the remains of Stegodon. Farther away were found Bubalus, apparently identical with the Siwalik species, Leptobos, Boselaphus, Rhinoceros, Felis, Sus, Hyæna, that all appear to be of new species. Of species found in other situations of the same stratum I will mention a gigantic Manis, more than three times the length of the existing Javanese species; a Hippopotamus, belonging to the same subspecies, Hexaprotodon, as the forms from the Siwalik and Narbada strata of western India.
Upon the evidence of these remains I determined that the four skeletal
- ↑ The color of the femur is also of the same chocolate brown as that of the calvarium. The latter appears to be somewhat different because it has been prepared with varnish for taking a cast.
