THE EARLIEST WRITING IN FRANCE. 545 



and afford the most features of interest for us are on the Scan- 

 dinavian coasts, and these have been largely utilized by Adrien de 

 Mortillet for the determination of the figures of megaliths. We cite 

 only one example from Gaul, the sculptures in the rocks of the Lago 

 dei Maraviglie, in a lateral valley on the left, going from San Dal- 

 mazo to Tende, in Piedmont. Some of the walls of the rock there and 

 large surfaces of detached blocks are covered with extremely rude fig- 

 ures formed by the accumulation of dints resulting from frequently 

 repeated blows. Among these figures, which are without order in the 

 grouping, and in which no regard is paid to proportions, are stags, 

 rams, human figurines, hatchets, pikes, baskets, and lance points. 

 These sculptures have been ascribed to the neolithic or the bronze 

 age; but the existence of figures of similar style on the walls of a lead 

 mine near Valauri has suggested that they may be more recent. 

 Human figurines are numerous, but heads of horned animals are 

 more so. Some are perhaps stags and rams, while bulls and cows are 

 abundant. The shepherds are accustomed to take their herds and 

 keep them for two or three months every year in this valley, which 

 is so lonely and melancholy in aspect that it has been called Valiee 

 d'Enfer, or Hell Valley. It would not be strange if these herdsmen, 

 for want of something better to do, should have amused themselves 

 delineating the things that were before their eyes — the cattle, the 

 miners, and things appertaining to the mine. As to special traits, 

 the representations are so badly executed as to leave a wide range 

 open for interpretation. — Translated for the Popular Science 

 Monthly from the Booh Formation de la Nation frangaise (Paris: 

 Felix Alcan). 



An old Newcomen steam engine at North Ashton, near Bristol, England, 

 as described by Mr. W. H. Pearson in the British Association, is still doing 

 practical work after an active career of nearly one hundred and fifty years, 

 it having been erected in 1750 at a cost of seventy pounds. The piston is 

 packed with rope, and has a covering of water on the top to make it steam 

 tight. The working of the engine is aided by the vacuum formed by the 

 injection of water into the cylinder. The old man now engaged in working 

 this engine has held his post since .he was a lad, and his father and grand- 

 father occupied the same position. 



The excavation of the Roman town of Calleva Attrebatum at Silchester, 

 near Reading, England, has brought to light nearly forty complete houses, 

 a private bathing establishment, two square temples, the west gate, a Chris- 

 tian church possibly of the fourth century, a basilica and forum, an exten- 

 sive system of dye works, a series of drains, other works, and a multitude of 

 ornaments and utensils — remains of Roman civic life and institutions, com- 

 plementing previous discoveries of Roman monuments in England, which 

 have been mostly military. 

 vol. ht. — 40 



