G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 313 



gesting the idea that their age is recent belonging almost to 

 the present period. As is well known, they abound in land 

 animals; a few of them derived from the adjacent continent, 

 but a large proportion not known elsewhere, and of the most 

 peculiar character. 



The question, therefore, arises, whence these inhabitants 

 came, animals as well as plants ? If descended from some 

 other type, belonging to a neighboring land, the amount of 

 difference they present shows that enormous intervals of 

 time have not been required to modify them almost beyond 

 the power of reference to their originals. If they were not 

 created directly and originally in that form on the spot, 

 whence were the germs derived, and what was their charac- 

 ter? New York Herald, September 6, 1872. 



TRACES OF EAST INDIAN IMPLEMENTS AND CUSTOMS IN 



W r ESTERN EUROPE. 



Mr. Evans, in his recent work upon the " Stone Age of 

 Great Britain," refers to certain beautifully polished imple- 

 ments of foreign material and of exceptional finish, occurring 

 at various localities, especially about the dolmens of France, 

 England, and Scotland ; and in view of the fact that similar 

 implements are abundant in India, where they are kept in 

 large numbers in the temples, and cared for with the utmost 

 jealousy by the priests, and venerated as sacred, he has rea- 

 son to infer that the dolmen builders came in the first in- 

 stance from India, as, in addition to the similarity of these 

 implements, megalithic structures are met with of a peculiar 

 construction, such as now exist in the Shewaroy district in 

 India, where the celt worship is still practiced. He suggests 

 that the manufacture of these celts originated in India, and 

 that the implements were brought to Europe by the Aryan 

 ancestors of the European people. As traces of the Aryan 

 language are found in English, and Aryan sepulchral archi- 

 tecture among English antiquities, it would be natural that 

 Aryan tools should be met with, as, it appears, has really 

 been the case. 12 A, July 18, 1872, 226. 



INFLUENCE OF COLORED RAYS ON THE RESPIRATION OF ANIMALS. 



The influence of the colored rays of light upon the growth 

 of the living plant has been well substantiated. Messrs. 



O 



