date in other countries becomes more extended, we ought to become prepared to grapple with a problem of so much interest. A work, entitled 'L'Homme fossile en Europe, son Industrie, ses Mœurs, ses Œuvres d'Art,' by M. Le Hon, has just been published at Brussels; and as the subject of it is coextensive with the range of this chronicle, it ought not to be passed over without notice in these pages. At the same time, as a work of this kind necessarily partakes more or less of the nature of a compilation, a detailed analysis of it would simply be a repetition, in a great measure, of what has already been stated in this and our last Chronicle. We shall therefore select for record one or two observations of the author, which contain what seem to be expressions of original views on certain subjects; and we must state our regret that they do not in all cases bear such intrinsic marks of probability as to ensure their unquestioned acceptance. M. Le Hon very properly places the first appearance of man, according to our present knowledge, after the epoch of Elephas meridionalis, the evidence of his contemporaneity with that animal being too doubtful for acceptance. In Europe he believes man to have first appeared after the diminution, to a greater or less extent, of the ice of the Glacial period, and after the contemporaneous upheaval of that continent. He seems to favour the idea that the human race migrated from Asia to the newly raised countries; but at the same time he believes man to have been very little more civilized than animals; and amongst other characteristics of our remote ancestors, he enumerates that of their teeth, indicating that they lived on fruits and roots; but how M. Le Hon became possessed of this astonishing idea surpasses our compre hension. The author discusses the question whether the early cavedwellers were cannibals. He accepts the evidence in support of an affirmative conclusion, but doubts its sufficiency; and, with much reason, he leaves the matter without coming to a decision. It will not be necessary for us to discuss the questions raised in the succeeding chapters, which contain very little that is new, but a great deal that must be useful to a student. should observe, also, that in treating of the ages of polished stone, of bronze, and of iron (Early Iron age), the author seems to be much more at home than in discussing the earlier periods, of which his account is excessively meagre. We Mr. J. E. Lee has published in the 'Geological Magazine' for last December a translation of three reports by Dr. Oscar Fraas, "On the Pre-historic Settlements of the Reindeer Age in Southern Germany." It appears that the deepening of the spring-head and the watercourse of the Schussen brook, by the proprietor of some mills in Schussenreid, led to the discovery of gigantic horns of the reindeer, with smaller ones of all ages, as well as bones of the same animal, which had been cracked to get out the marrow. Besides the remains of the reindeer, were found those of oxen, bears, wolves, the horse, and the glutton, as well as of birds and fish. "A large proportion of the horns have been formed, in a very simple and inartificial manner, into clubs or hammers, awls (some of which have projecting ears), or into agricultural tools, and other implements of incipient industry." About 600 specimens of flint flakes were discovered, besides a number of flint cores, but "no trace of metal was found, nor the mark of anything at all approaching that of a metal tool." As regards the age of these remains, Dr. Fraas has made observations bearing both on their relative and their absolute date. Their relative age he infers to be far greater than that of any of the Lake-dwellings, and he seems to indicate his belief of their contemporaneity with the remains of the Reindeer period, discovered in the Dordogne by MM. Lartêt and Christy. As to the absolute date which can be assigned to them, we must quote Dr. Fraas's, or rather Mr. Lee's, own words :-"But a short time since there was here the pleasant little tarn, the spring-head of the brook Schussen; 700 years ago the Premonstratensian monks built their monastery; 1,000 years still earlier a Roman road, with all its traffic, is said to have passed this way; but long before all these periods there existed here a settlement where human beings carried on all the avocations of life." Amongst the interesting monuments of antiquity, which render the valley of the Mississippi so attractive to the student of American archæology, few have obtained more attention than the group of "sacred enclosures," or "forts," whichever they may be, near Newark, Ohio. Besides these, "scattered over the same plain, and crowning the neighbouring hills, are numerous tumnli, or mounds, evidently erected by the same people that built the larger works." In a "Description of an Ancient Sepulchral Mound, near Newark, Ohio," published in the last volume of the American Journal of Science, Mr. O. C. Marsh, from whose paper we have just quoted, describes the results of an excavation into one of these mounds. In it were found several skeletons and parts of skeletons, showing in some cases that the interment had been performed with great care with them were associated piles of charred bones, the fragments of some of which were recognizable as human; showing that the interment of some individuals was accompanied by a kind of incrematory rite. With some fragmentary remains of a child was found a string of beads, neatly made of native copper, without the aid of fire, by hammering the metal in its original state. On the same string, arranged at regular intervals, were five shell-beads, of the same diameter, but about twice as long as those of copper. At the base of the mound was found a cist, or grave, which had been excavated in the soil before the mound itself was commenced. In it were found parts of at least eight skeletons, belonging to individuals of different ages; they had evidently been thrown in carelessly, most of them soon after death, and thus presented a striking contrast to the evidences of careful burial in the mound itself. Eleven skeletons were discovered by Mr. Marsh in such a condition as to prove that the individuals had been buried in a hurried and careless manner, and he states that "nearly all of these remains were those of women and children." With the skeletons were found implements of flint and chert, remains of various animals, all of which are still living, and most of them still inhabiting Ohio. Two vessels of very coarse pottery. were discovered; some hæmatite powder, which was probably used as paint; together with needles, spoons, a whistle, a spatula, and other objects made of bone. The manner in which the teeth were worn indicates, says Mr. Marsh, "that the mound-builders, like the ancient Egyptians, and the Danes of the Stone age, did not, in eating, use the incisive teeth for cutting, as modern nations do." We must conclude our notice of this very interesting paper by stating that the author infers the large proportion of small children represented amongst the remains to indicate "for this case a rate of infant mortality (about thirty-three per cent.) which is much higher than some have supposed ever existed among rude nations." The Anthropological Review' for January contains, amongst other articles of interest, what we believe to be the most tangible account yet published of the characters and the age of the human jaw found in the Trou de la Naulette, in the Valley of the Lesse. It is contained in a summary of a paper read before the Anthropological Society of London by Mr. C. Carter Blake, who had been sent by that Society to report on the recent explorations of the Bone-caves of the Valley of the Lesse conducted by Dr. Dupont, under the auspices of the Belgian Government. As Mr. Blake's conclusions are given categorically in a very brief form, we cannot do better than record them verbatim, as follows:-"(1) That the deposit of stratified lehm' under stalagmite in the Trou de la Naulette was due to the action of slowly operating causes. (2) That the individual whose jaw was found therein was contemporary with the elephant and rhinoceros, whose remains are embedded under like conditions. (3) That some of the characters afforded by the jaw indicate a resemblance to the jaws of the Slavonic peoples of Eastern Europe, as especially exemplified in the Masures and Wends. (4) That some of the characters of the jaw from the Trou de la Naulette indicate a strong resemblance to, and exaggeration of, the characters afforded by the melanous races of men, and especially the Australian. (5) That the above characters afford a distinction between the remains found in the Trou de la Naulette and the Trou de la Frontal, which latter contained the Reindeerperiod individuals, strongly resembling the Calmucks of the present day." We hope that the detection of these various resemblances may hereafter prove to be well founded; but at present the evidence seems remarkably slight. We also look forward to some explanation of the association in one individual of characters belonging to the Masures and the Wends, with others afforded by those races which, in the euphemistic dialect of anthropologists, are considerately termed "melanous." The uses to which the ordinary types of Flint Implements, of the larger sort, were put by the people who made them, have been, in the minds of most antiquaries, associated more or less with war or the chase, though some have sought to prove that they were used for more peaceful and bucolic purposes, such as digging roots. The smaller implements are also generally supposed to have been used as cutting or scraping instruments of some kind; but Professor Steenstrup has recently published a paper, entitled "Imod Hr. Professor Worsane's Tvedeling af Stenalderen; et Bidrag til Forstaaelsen af Stenalderens Kultur her i Norden," in which he compares them with certain stone objects used by the Esquimaux for the purpose of sinking their hooks, &c., in fishing. This idea is, to an Englishman, not a little novel, and hard to admit; but to a Scandinavian it may be more familiar, as the figures given by Professor Steenstrup show a considerable resemblance, in form and proportions, between the objects compared. At any rate, Professor Steenstrup's reputation is such that an expression of his deliberate opinion commands an unprejudiced consideration. 3. ASTRONOMY. (Including the Proceedings of the Royal Astronomical Society.) THE gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society has been awarded to Mr. Huggins and Dr. Miller, jointly, for their researches into the physical and chemical constitution of fixed stars, nebulæ, and comets, by means of Spectrum Analysis. Our readers, who have been presented from time to time with the results of the important investigations made by the medallists, will recognize the justice of the award. The results of observations made by our leading astronomers upon the November meteors are now before us. In some respects they are disappointing. We cannot but feel that although the display had been predicted, it came after all somewhat as a surprise. We miss accordingly a class of observations, which, had the shower been more confidently expected, would certainly have been suggested, we refer to prearranged comparison-observations. If observers separated by suitable distances, had assigned themselves the task of recording the phenomena presented by the first characteristic meteor appearing after certain definite epochs, we could not have failed to have satisfactory evidence respecting the average height and velocity of the shooting stars which composed the shower. The display loses half its significance for the want of this sort of evidence. Professor Challis justly remarks on the improbability that (without some such arrangement as we have suggested) single meteors could be observed "in different localities;" he adds, with apparent regret that so favourable an opportunity was allowed to pass unused, "it now appears to me that this class of observations is of great importance with respect to the theory of the phenomenon. The determination of the "radiant point" of the shower was effected, however, in a most complete and satisfactory manner. It will be remembered that in Humboldt's Cosmos,' some doubt is expressed as to Leo being the true constellation-radiant of the November shower. The accompanying Figure will show that doubt can no longer exist on this point. It represents "the sickle" in Leo, within which group it had been announced that the radiant point might be looked for The evidence for the determination of this point was of a twofold character:-First, in the immediate neighbour VOL. IV. Q |