Science.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1967, 14 February 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Science.

Ancient Ulan. Tnr.r.R are certin disadvantages under which the theory of human descent acording to the Darwinists labours, anil which late discoveries in the lower quaternary, or upper tertiary beds, if the latter must be accepted, do not at all remove. The opening ol ancient dwellings in the chalk that lined the banks of lake or river, whose bed has been dry for ages, has brought to light a large number of human skeletons with a great quantity of bone and stone implements and flint weapons and tools. Within a few years back zealous observers liko do Baye, Ilarvey, Dupont, Lartet, de Quatrefages, have brought into special prominence the characteristics of the men of the glacial period, or of that remote epoch when bo low a temperature prevailed in Central Europe that the reindeer, the mammoth, and mountain goat roamed over the plains of France, and browsed upon the wooded slopes of Italy and Austria. In the places of burial, and in the hillside dwellings, whoso rocky structuro has preserved their osseous remains until our day, several types of cranial organization appear. We have the long skull of the Canstadt type, of which the celebrated fossil of Neanderthal is a specimen, and tho broad skull of the la Truchtre type, which is elevated in the forehead and crown, and in horizontal contour approaches the Teutonic class of the present time. Botween these two types there are three intermediate types that intimate a mixtiue or blending of races. In fact, in eomo caves, deep in valley alluvium, crania of tho long and broad and mixed types have been found lying together, thus proving tho claim of archaeologists that distinct races of ancient peoples through conquest or friendly intercourse mingled their characteristic features. The dolichocephalio or long-Bkulled rnce may have antedated the brachycephalic or broad-skulled race ; they were smaller-brained and of inferior intelligence, their difference in.