rings and a few tools of iron. In this cairn are five inscribed stones. Several of the cairns contain inscribed stones, and the author gives a classified list of the characters on them, to the number of 1,393 separate devices, or many times more than had been previously supposed to exist in Ireland. Mr. Conwell does not indicate the age of these cairns, nor the nature of the inscriptions, except in recording the occurrence, amongst the latter, of "nearly 300 single straight lines, some of which may probably be Oghamic."* Passing by a paper on an obelisk on Tarra Hill, supposed to be the "Lia Fail," or "Stone of Destiny," on which the Irish kings were formerly crowned, we come to an important memoir by the same author "On an inscribed Cromleac near Rathkenny, Co. Meath." The inscribed stone exhibits on its upper surface a most interesting series of lines, consisting of upwards of ninety separate characters (see Plate, Fig. 1), still showing "the original clean and smooth cutting-for the most part in a triangularly shaped hollowed linesome to the depth of nearly a quarter of an inch." On the under side seven circles are cut (see Plate, Fig. 2), and as many more are visible on the opposite face of an upright stone against which it leans. The sculpturing of the circles is rude, and bears a strong contrast to that of the lines. On the same surface of the slab as the latter are upwards of 300 depressions or cup-shaped hollows, which are probably the result of weathering and not artificial (see Plate, Fig. 1). Mr. Conwell does not attempt to give the meaning of the inscription, nor does he hint at the style of writing to which it may possibly belong. We may remark, however, that in the prevalence of simple lines it has an Oghamic affinity, while a few characters have a somewhat Runic appearance. To show that this is not the only example of such an inscription, Mr. Conwell has reproduced a tracing of one on a cromleac near Macroom, County Cork; and as we have copied this figure also (Plate, Fig. 3), our readers will perceive the striking similarity of the two inscriptions. The Royal Irish Academy has also published † a valuable memoir by Capt. Meadows Taylor "On Cairns, Cromlechs, Kistvaens, and other Celtic, Druidical, or Scythian monuments in the Dekhan." It would occupy a Chronicle to describe these remains, so we must content ourselves with recording the author's summary of his discoveries. These are, "(1) Cromlechs, or open monuments, with and without circles of stones, containing no remains; (2) Kistvaens, with and without circular perforations in a side-slab, and with and without covering slabs, containing human ashes, bones, and broken pottery; (3) Cairns and barrows, with single, double, and treble circles of rocks and stones, containing cists and skeletons, with traces of human sacrifice, pottery, arms, &c.; others with cinerary urns For an example of an Oghamic inscription, see Plate, Fig. 4. Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., vol. xxiv., part 5. interred in them without cists; (4) Rock-temples, with circles of stones round them; (5) Lines of rocks placed to mark boundaries for cairns; (6) Square and diagonal platforms of rocks enclosing cairns; (7) The great parallelogram and place of cremation at Shahpoor." These embrace nearly all the known forms of Druidical or Scythian remains, and the author therefore concludes that they establish the identity of the great Aryan nomadic tribes of the east with those of the west. The almost perfect similarity of the monuments of worship and sepulture in the two regions is evidently too remarkable to be doubted. Indeed, Capt. Taylor, in a subsequent paper on "A Group of Ancient Cairns on Twizell Moor, in Northumberland," points out that these agree in very minute points with those he had previously described as occurring in India. These two papers are worthy of careful study by the philologist as well as the antiquary, for if the remarkable similarity between the Cairns and Cromlechs of England and those of India really bear the interpretation suggested by the author, the existence of the people termed Aryan by the philologist is no longer a mere theory, pour servir, but is an historical truth. In Part IV. of the Reliquiæ Aquitanica' is a discussion by the late Mr. Christy on the antiquity of the Reindeer-period in Southern France, a question of considerable difficulty with regard to dates, but comparatively easy if the object be merely "to indicate its place in the series of observed facts in relation to ancient man." Mr. Christy is doubtless correct in stating that it is "of higher antiquity than the Kjökkenmöddings of Denmark and the Lacustrine dwellings of Switzerland, and very certainly than the whole group of so-called Celtic and Cromlech remains." His other conclusion "that, so far, nothing in the investigation of the works of uncivilized or primitive man, either of ancient or modern times, appears to necessitate a change in the old cherished idea of the Unity of the Human Race," will probably be called in question by many. Indeed, it is not by any means an accepted principle that a similarity of design in certain of man's works is any sure indication of unity of origin. Therefore, although it is probable that the conclusion is true, it is neither confirmed nor controverted by the evidence here brought forward. Amongst the specimens figured in this part are two hollowed pebbles of granite, the use of which is very doubtful, unless they were mortars, and there are difficulties in the way of even this interpretation. The Anthropological Review' for April contains several articles of considerable interest, including the commencement of two of a general character, which will well repay perusal, namely, Dr. Broca on Anthropology, and Prof. Carl Vogt on "The Primitive Period of the Human Species." There is also a paper by Dr. Robert H. Collyer on "The Fossil Human Jaw from Suffolk," in which the author quotes the opinions of several eminent osteologists as to the age of this famous "Coprolite Jaw." Mr. Busk, who has most carefully examined it, states that "though not of the portentous antiquity it would have claimed, had it been cotemporary of Elephas meridionalis, the 'coprolite jaw' fairly claims a considerable age." The beds at Foxhall, near Ipswich, from which the jaw was said to have been obtained, belong to the coprolite-yielding Red Crag, and are of the age of Elephas meridionalis, so clearly Mr. Busk thinks it is of posterior date. Mr. Collyer, however, observes that "when he [Mr. Busk] says the coprolite jaw is of very great antiquity he admits the whole question." The Journal of the Anthropological Society' contains an interesting paper by Lieut.-Col. Lane Fox, entitled "A Description of certain Piles found near London Wall and Southwark, possibly the remains of Pile Buildings." The bones found with the piles at London Wall belong chiefly to domestic animals, but mixed, according to Mr. Carter Blake, with a cave-species of goat (Capra pyrenaica) and with two extinct species of ox, viz. Bos longifrons and Bos trochoceros. The works of art associated with them were, curiously enough, partly Roman, and partly of a ruder construction, namely, "handles and points of bone," which, in the opinion of Professor Owen and Mr. Blake, "may possibly have been formed with flint;" but Col. Lane Fox has been unable to ascertain that they were found at a lower level than the Roman remains, or that any flint implements have been found in the place. Still, to whatever period this mixture of remains may belong, the occurrence of traces of pile-dwellings in the valley of the Thames is a fact of very high interest. There is also a paper by the Rev. Dunbar Heath "On the Way in which Large Bodies of Mute Men would acquire Language from Small Bodies of Speaking Men." Almost simultaneously with the discovery of pile-dwellings in London has appeared the announcement of the finding of flint implements, associated with the remains of living and extinct species of mammals, in Paris. Amongst the mammals are Elephas primigenius, Elephas antiquus. Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Hippopotamus amphibius, Bos primigenius, Bos taurus, Cervus Canadensis, Cervus elaphus, &c. Further details are given in two papers in the last number of the Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, namely, "Recherches archéologiques et paléontologiques faites dans l'intérieur de Paris," by M. Reboux; and "Sur les instruments humains et les ossements d'animaux trouvés MM. Martin et Reboux dans le terrain quaternaire de Paris," by M. Albert Gaudry. VOL. IV. * Vol. xxiv., No. 2. par 2 c The last volume of the Transactions of the Ethnological Society contains so large a number of papers that we can notice only a selection from them. In Mr. Crawford's paper "On the Physical and Mental Characteristics of the European and Asiatic Races of Man," the author arrives at the conclusion that between these races "there is a broad innate difference, physical, intellectual, and moral; and that such difference has existed from the earliest authentic records and is most probably coeval with the first creation of man." The same author has a paper on the History of Written Language, in which he brings forward his theoretical views on the subject, some of which appear scarcely in unison with facts. He endeavours to show that written characters were used in Asia long before they were in Europe; and he states that in the time of Julius Cæsar our ancestors were "as illiterate as are now the negroes of Ashantee, or as were the cannibals of New Zealand when Cook first described them." His argument appears to be that in Asia every nation has its own written alphabet, and sometimes more than one, except where that of some other nation has superseded the original one, while in Europe the Greek and Roman characters are in universal use. Indeed, he states that "no race from the Euxine to the Atlantic, or from Greece to Scandinavia, has ever invented an alphabet." Does not Mr. Crawford know that the Roman alphabet superseded the Runic in Scandinavia and England, that the Ogham staves of Ireland are still older, and that other phonetic writings have been discovered whose age and meaning are as yet unknown? Sir John Lubbock and Mr. Frederick Lubbock, in a paper "On the true Assignation of the Bronze Weapons, &c., found in Northern and Western Europe," defend with considerable success the antiquity of the weapons of the Bronze age, in contravention of Mr. Wright's theory that they are of Roman origin. Mr. Wright has a paper "On the Intercourse of the Romans with Ireland," in which he shows that authentic discoveries of Roman coins have been made in five Irish counties, and all, with one exception, in the province of Ulster. Professor Steenstrup and Sir John Lubbock describe the Flint Implements recently discovered near Pressigny-le-Grande; Mr. Crawford has three papers "On the History and Migration of Cultivated Plants in reference to Ethnology;" and Mr. R. Dunn contributes an article entitled "Archæology and Ethnology: remarks on some of the bearings of Archæology upon certain Ethnological Problems and Researches;" but these and some other papers of interest we have no space to discuss. A noteworthy paper by Dr. Faudel, "Sur la découverte d'ossements fossiles humains dans le lehm de la vallée du Rhin à Eguisheim, près Colmar (Haut Rhin)," has been published this year in the Bulletin of the Colmar Natural History Society. The human bones consist of a frontal and a right parietal, almost entire, belonging to the same skull; and they were found associated with remains of the Bison, Elephas primigenius, &c., in the Lehm or Loess of the valley of the Upper Rhine. From their discovery the author infers that man existed in Alsace prior to those changes which, coming after the deposition of the diluvium, gave to the country its present outline. An International Congress for Anthropology and Prehistoric Archæology is announced to be held in Paris, under the Presidency of M. Lartet, from the 17th to the 28th of August inclusive. EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE, Fig. 1. Inscribed slab of a cromlech near Rathkenny, Co. Meath; copied from the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. ix., plate 12. Fig. 2. Side-view of the inscribed cromlech near Rathkenny, Co. Meath, showing the inscribed circles on the under surface of the inclined slab (Fig. 1), copied from the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. ix., plate 11, Fig. 4. Fig. 3. Tracing of an inscription on a cromlech at Macroom, Co. Cork, copied from the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. ix., plate 11, Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Ogham Stone from Dunbel, Kilkenny, copied from Professor Stephens's Runic Monuments,' part 1, p. 57. 3.-ASTRONOMY. (Including the Proceedings of the Royal Astronomical Society.) OBSERVATION of the meteor-shower of last November, and a careful discussion of the phenomena, have resulted in one of the most interesting discoveries which has for many years been effected by astronomers. In our last Chronicle we pointed out that the want of observations determining the velocity with which the meteors travelled, left us, apparently, no choice but to select the most probable period of revolution, out of several which accounted for the observed recurrence of maximum displays. For reasons there discussed, astronomers selected a period falling short of one year by one-33rd part. The most natural explanation of the well-marked period of 33 years-the supposition, namely, that this interval is the true period in which meteors complete a revolution around the sun-was looked on as far less probable. The objections to this view are:-(i) The à priori improbability that an orbit of such eccentricity as the supposition implies, should intersect the earth's orbit; (ii) the further improbability that the intersection should fall so near the perihelion of the meteor's orbit as to account for the position of the radiant-point; and (iii) the difficulty of conceiving that an orbit of such extent should be so plentifully |