THE MISSING LINK

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12734, 1 April 1909, Page 4

THE MISSING LINK

The much talk of "missing link" has been found at last, and amply justifies Darwin's theory that we are all descended from the ape. So, at least, we .are told by two French scientists, who have been examining some remains which were found the other day in a grotto by two priests. It is confidently asserted that they belonged to a very low type of pre-historic man, who had probably no language, who walked on all fours, and who walked and lived and died 30,000 years ago. The fragmentary skeleton was found lying in a shallow trench three- yards from the entry to the grotto. The soil at the same level as the skeleton was without remains, while the soil above contained the remains of the rhinoceros, reindeer, hyena, and wolf. The skeleton was on its side, with the legs folded towards the body. It appeared to have been buried, and beside it was the hind foot of some large bovine, which seems to have been placed there as if for food for the dead. The age of the "first man" at the time of death was probably over 50 years. The thigh bones were curved in like those of theape, establishing a belief that this- member of the human species moved on all fours. One thing that bridges over the centuries that have passed since the owner of these bones lived is that they show their owner suffered from rheumatism. The remains are certainly those of a man, but they are of the 'lowest type of fossilised man yet discovered. If the anthropoid apes are placed at one end of the scale and the man at the other, between them comes the pithecanthropus, which is near the former, while the newly-found specimen is nearer man without losing touch with the pithecanthropuß. He was carnivorous, it is said, this ancestor of the human race, for in the grotto where he was found there were the bones of a reindeer and fossil remains of other animals, all prehistoric, which it may be he^had killed and brought to the cave for food in time of stress. One of the professors referred to has expressed the opinion that the grotto in whicK tbe ske'loton was found had been a prehistoric burial grourid. This would argue that the man had companions and friends, and that even some sort of tribal organisation exist,ed. As tending to prove that the "first man" reposed in the burial ground of his tribe, it is pointed out that the bones were found in a triangular hollow that might have served as a primitive sarcophagus. The skull bones were resting on a pillow of stones surmounted by a large bone placed flaj; on the stones, which, it is said, indicates 'that the relatives or friends of the "missing link" placed a joint of meat in his sepulchre that he might not go hungry on his long journey into the Unknown, after tie manner of other primitive peoples. There was, however, no trace in the grotto of fire or of an altar for sacrifice, and the scientists conclude that this early man did not know how to create fire and ate his reindeer and wild horse raw. There were rude stone instruments in the cave, but upon them was no carving, for their owner lived before even the vaguest dream of the rudest art dawned in the mind of man. From the position in which the bones were found it is argued that the prehistoric man was lying on his fide when death came to him or was placed in that position by those who laid him in ! the grotto. The legs were drawn up towards the body. The thigh bones show that there was an incurvation, which indicates that the man habitually stooped, walking upright with difficulty.