The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1873-09-04
A HUMAN sKULI. Fopsp IN SOLID
ROCK,

Accounts were given of human skeleton un-
| earthed by the quarrymen in Neander valley,
near the Dussel, at Elbenfelds, in Rhenish Prus-
| STA. The professors pronounced it to be of great
| autianit;, and were of the opinion that the Ne
ander man, whose bones possessed in general the
| same Qualities which characterize the bones of
| the mammoth found 10 neghboring districts and
inclosed in the same diluvial loan, lived together
with the mammoth and other extinct animals OF
| the drift period. The skull was the subject of
| measurement and calculation of brain power. Its
capacity was found to be abont equal to that of
the average POlynesian and Hottentot, and while
the opinion of biologists differed in regard TO mi
nor points, all admitted the great antiquity of
the skull and homes.
Aud now Kansas furnishes an old skull for ge-
Ologists and phrenologists TO puzzle over, and to
display their usual lack of learning when they
try TO grappe with the question of mans age OH
the earth. When the sayans are brought face to
face with the dead face of which the books makes
no record or tradition utters no faint word, they
must feel how little they know-with no sensa-
tion but that of wonder, which is the acknowl.
edged admission of ignorance. The human intel
lect has its fixed bounds of positive knowledge and
can neither soar above dig below itself But
strata are books, and fossils are a written Ian
guage well understood by BIOLOGISTS and read
with ease until even these characters become
blurred and indistinct by ages upon ages and
periods upon periods of the unknown A few
Bricks or blocks of stone or two enable arche0lo-
gists to restore edifice that has been moulder-
ed for centuries aud passed entirely out of the
minds of men. So few rocks and fossils have
enabled biologists and Psychologists to build aud
people the world. The subject has grown into
such popular interest, now that these scientific
men are always at it-building and reconstruct
ing, and every discovery fills them with iOy and
new ardor in their life work.
The Usage Mission (Kas) Journal gives an ac-
connt of a late discovery near the western line
of the County. 1t is a hnman skull imbedtled in
rock, and was brought To light by blasting.
DIR. j. c. Whitley, of Usage Mission, thus describes
it:
at is that of the Uranium of the human spe-
cics, of large size, imbedded in conglOmerate rock
of the tertiary class, and found several feet be-
meath the surface. Parts of the frontal parietal
aud occiptal bones were carried away by explo-
sion. The pieces of rock holding the remains
weighs some foi ty fifty pounds with many i'm
pressons of marine shells, and through it runs a
vein of quartz, or within the Uranium crystalized
organic matter, and by the aid of a microscope
presents beautiful appearance. If this be a
fact, and 1t seems to bear the impress of truth i'm
the description, neither Lyell nor Hugh Miller
nor any of the rest of the subterraneau explorers
report anything so strange. The Neander man
comes the nearest to it, but the Neander bones
were found in loan only two OF three feet beneath
the surface. This skull was discovered in solid
rock. 1t was compared with another skull which
the doctor had in his Office. The rock tombed
specimen had far better developed cranium in
its several dameters, and was exactly like the
other skull except that in its greatest diameter
u measured an inch and quarter mOre.- The i,s-
ference Is that the antedeluvian, or preadamic
men Of this continent were intellectually better
developed than the men of the old world That
may turn out to be very distinct source of pride
to MS, as the heirs of the world soil and life
But there are great many missing links to find
before We take bold of this chain of tboupht with
much confidence. If the Kansas discovery be
real, It is worthy of thorough scientific inyesti-
gation.-St Louis Republican