Sept. 1, 1SC6.J 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



203 



liasima, he says : — " The wonderful power possessed 

 by this animal of casting away its arms entire, and 

 even breaking them into small pieces, approximates 

 it to the Ophiurse : an attempt to procure a perfect 

 specimen by introducing it into a bucket of cold 

 fresh water was unsuccessful ; whether the cold air 

 was too much for him, or the sight of the bucket too 

 terrific, I know not ; but in a moment he proceeded 

 to dissolve his corporation, and at every mesh of the 

 dredge his fragments were seen escaping. In despair 

 I grasped at the largest, and brought up the ex- 

 tremity of an arm, with its terminating eye, the 

 spinous eyelid of which opened and closed with 

 something exceeduigly like a wink of derision." 

 I append a short description of 0. rosida, which 



Fig. 200. Portion of one of the rays of Ophiocoma rosula, 

 showing the "claws" or "hooks" in situ x 25. 



may be useful to those readers of Science Gossip 

 who do not posses Forbes's work. 



Ophioccoia rosula, Link, Specific character.*— 

 "Disc convex, rounded, covered with spines. Two 

 large triangular plates opposite the origin of each ray. 

 "Upper ray-scales triangular, carinated, imbricated. 

 Lateral ray-plates bearing five spines each, which 

 are much longer than the breadth of the ray." — 

 Forbes. 



In the centre of the disc is a small obscurely pen- 

 tangular transparent plate, irregularly perforated, 

 and in my specimen free from spines ; as are also the 

 triangular plates. The disc spines are short, 

 truncate, and frequently square, with a spinous 

 process at each corner. 



This species is the most handsome, as well as the 

 commonest of the native Brittle Stars ; it is also the 

 most brittle, breaking itself to pieces with great 

 ease and quickness. The ray-spines make a beautiful 

 microscopic object, and like the spines of Spa- 

 tangits, aualyzc polarized light (using the polarizer 

 and selenite plate only). 



I would advise any microscopist who has an op- 

 portunity of procuring Brittle Stars alive, to en- 

 deavour to ascertain the true use of these organisms. 

 Every part of the skeleton of these animals is replete 

 with interest, and will repay the observer for any 

 labour he may bestow upon it. 



The Micrographic Dictionary gives some figures 

 of hooks of Ophiura, but they do not resemble 

 those I have just described. Are they the claws of 

 Astrophjton scutatum ? Fred. Kitton. 



THE TRACK OF THE PIGMIES. 



A S I have bestowed some little attention upon 

 -*--*- the subject so voluminously and ingeniously 

 treated of by your Belgiau correspondent, I should 

 be much obliged by your inserting a few remarks 

 and criticisms upon his essay. 



It is very curious that the three or four races 

 which played the most prominent part in primeval 

 civilization — the Toltecs, Chinese, Egyptians, and 

 Hindoos — were all dwarfish races. Had their short- 

 ness anything to do with their intellectual prowess, 

 or vice versa ? some may be tempted to ask. Pro- 

 bably it had ; in the same way that intellectual and 

 sedentary occupations, now, disincline the mind, 

 and diminish the time, for athletic exercises. 



The innumerable relics of the existence of a 

 dwarfish race in Europe, in extreme antiquity, seem 

 to prove the truth of the theory which many ethno- 

 logists support, — that the Fins were the first in- 

 habitants of our continent, and that they now only 

 survive in the mountains of Biscay and the wilds of 

 Lapland, in their original purity. The caves of 

 Central Europe, and the tumuli of Denmark and 

 Great Britain, contain skulls of the purely Finnish 

 type, and weapons and utensils of the Stone period. 

 The inhabitants of the Swiss lacustrine habitations 

 were, doubtless, Fins — the aborigines of Europe — 

 in their highest stage of civilization, who were even 

 then being rapidly pressed upon and extirpated by 

 the fierce and burly Celtic, Scandinavian, and 

 Helvetian tribes. 



Although the author of the essay mentions the 

 classical " Troglodytes," he totally omits all refer- 

 ence to the Bosjesmen of* Cape Colony, a most 

 singular and degraded branch of the Hottentot 

 family, which is doubtless the aboriginal African 

 race. Contrary to the general opinion, the Bosjes- 

 men are found with all the peculiarities of their 

 dwarfish race unchanged, as far north as the Gabun 

 and Bonny rivers, in Guinea, and very likely will be 

 discovered in the interior also. Winwood Beade 

 agrees with me in considering this widely-spread and 

 unique race to be the original population of Africa, 

 and in his " Savage Africa " many interesting details 

 may be found concerning them. A writer named 

 Smith also describes them on the western coast of 



