The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-07-12
Find A Modern Man, Aged About
 I7O,OOO Years
Body Embedded in Former Channel of Thames-Is True Type of Man,
 Not Monkey

The fossil remains of the Galley Hlll man were discovered by Robert FL nott, a printer in ChamberweN and a zealous collector of everything which throws light on the prehistoric inhab- itants in the south of England. On a day toward the end of September, 1888. he and his son Richard set out to visit certain gravel pits which were being worked in the valley of the Thames, some miles above Gravesend one of them being the pit at Galley Hill. At this place the. main road from Gravesend to London passes near the edge of great bank or chalk. which rises up about go feet above the level of the river, from which it is separated by flat tract or meadows and marsh nearly a mile wide. The bank of chalk is worked by the numerous cement factorles scattered along its base. On the top of the chalk is an extensive bed Of gravel some 10 feet in depth, which has to be removed as the chalk pit IS extended. The gravel is known to geologists as the high-level or 10O-foot terrace, and is regarded by them, ana with good reason, as an ancient bed of the Thames. In the gravel the old. or paleolithic, forms of flint inn clements are found, so are remains Of the mammoth and of other animals which existed in England when the glacial period was at an end. In those days. just as at the present time, the river engulfed, entombed and in some cases preserved in it's bed the many things which might be caught in its flood, says the London News.
 On reaching the Galley Hill pit MT. Elliott found Jack Allsop busily screening gravel and keeping sharp eye for such things as archaeolog1sts Value Jack had something of par ticular interest for his visitors-name- ly. a human skull, which he found in a sandy-clay layer of the gravel, ln- dicating the bottom of pool or the old river The skull was eight feet from the surface of the gravel and two feet above the cfalk-too deep to be accounted for by supposing it to be burial Fortunately, Matthews Hayes. now schoolmaster at Greenh1the, saw the skull when first exposed, before it was removed, and he noted that the overiying gravel was in its naturai and undisturbed state. The skull was already uncovered and taken out but the other bones of the skeleton were still embedded in. the sandy clay, ana were excavated by MT. Elliott Wltn great care-they were soft and very fragile He also observed that the overlying gravel was just as the an- cient Thames had laid it down. Fur ther, the condition of the bones. cer- tain primitive points in structure, and the fact that remains of similar type of man have been found on several occasions in ancient strata on the con- tinent, convince one that the remains thus, discovered by MT. Elliott were those of a man who lived in England when the Tha mes, carrying probably a larger volume of water than 1t now does flowed on land which was nearly 100 feet above it's present level.
 No accurate estimate can be formed in years as to how long ago that may be. We know, however, that the river has worn out its valley, in some places six or eight miles wide, down to it's present level; 1t is further known that since the 100-foOt terrace was laid down the river has occupied a channel 40 feet below the present one, which it has filed up again; so that altogether, at the lowest estimate, the level of the Thames, in the tidal reach of the river, has been lowered or raised to an extent of ITO feet. There Is no reason to believe that the e'evation or depression of the lana, which leads to the fall, and rise in the level of the river, has not been uni form We must judge of the past from what we know of the present, and on this basis the land movement is a slow one, for as far as can be now told the level of the river has scarcely changed since the Roman period If, then, movement of a foot Is allowed for each thousand years one may with some safety as sign at least a period of 170,000 years to the period which has elapsed since the high-level terrace was laid down at Galley Hill Further research will probably show that the period IS much longer, and that the land move ment Is much slower than is presumed here
 Turning now to what can be told of this ancient Briton from a study of the remains, one is struck with the modernity of the type. It is true that. there Is probably not single individ- ual now in these islands, that shows all the features of this man, for man he was The extreme length and ex- t-eme narrowness of his head may be approached by some, his short stature "a little more than five feet-by many, but few would show the curious fea- lures of his thigh bone and the rela- tive shortness of his leg bones. Very few would be found to possess the same relative dimensions of teeth, but in many men an equally retreating chin and a corresponding form, of forehead can be seen. His brain was somewhat below that ofA the average modern man Tn size, Dut~Dlgger than is often found in highly intelligent people The lesson that the Galley H III discovery has brought home is that the modern type of man-the E-an who has shed all traces of simiap traits in face, feature and body, is infinitely older than we have hitherto| supposed This history of man in England does not commence some 5000 years ago with an invasion of Coli or Saxon but at period of which 5000 years is but a small frae- tion.
 Why do they rave about the Mug