G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 275 



newly discovered inscription the account of the deluge is put, 

 as a narrative, in the mouth of Xisuthurus, or Noah. He re- 

 lates the wickedness of the world, the command to build the 

 ark, its building, the filling of it, the deluge, the resting of 

 the ark on a mountain, the sending out of birds, and other 

 matters. 



The narrative has a closer resemblance to the account 

 transmitted by the Greeks from Berosus, the Chaldean histo- 

 rian, than to the Biblical history ; but it does not differ ma- 

 terially from either, the principal differences being as to the 

 duration of the deluge, the name of the mountain on which 

 the ark rested, the sending out of the birds, etc. The cunei- 

 form account is much longer and fuller than that of Berosus, 

 and has several details omitted both by the Bible and the 

 Chaldean historian. 



This inscription opens up many questions of which we 

 knew nothing previously, and it is connected with a number 

 of the details of Chaldean history, which will be both inter- 

 esting and important. This is the first time any inscription 

 has been found with an account of an event mentioned in 

 Genesis. 3 A, November 23, 1872, 448. 



ORIGIN OF THE MAORIS. 



According to Mr. Thomson, the Maoris (or the aboriginal 

 population of New Zealand) were derived from Southern In- 

 dia, at a time when the peninsula as well as the Indian Archi- 

 pelago was peopled by negroes. In his opinion, a stream 

 of emigration extended from the peninsula in both an east- 

 ern and western direction. Its movement eastward can be 

 traced readily as far as the Moluccas, the race being modi- 

 fied in color, but not in language, by the incursions of the 

 Mangians and Anamese. With the Moluccas as a basis, a 

 stream of the mixed races flowed eastward from island to isl- 

 and over Polynesia, one branch finding its way to New Zea- 

 land by the way of Tongataboo. 13 A^Nov. 1, 1872, 413. 



ANTIQUITIES OF THE SCYTHIA OF HERODOTUS. 



The Imperial Archaeological Commission of St. Petersburg 

 has lately published a second livraison of its magnificent 

 work upon the antiquities of the Scy thia of Herodotus. This 

 embraces a large number of figures of prehistoric instru- 



