G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 277 



obtained, or they have declined to purchase either the mon- 

 ument itself or a power to restrain the owner or occupier of 

 it from injuring it during a certain period of years. 



The Commissioners are empowered to purchase the free- 

 hold or other estate in any monument, and rights of way for 

 the public to it, as well as to exercise the power of restraint 

 from injury. The amount of compensation to be awarded, 

 under either head, is to be determined under an existing act 

 of Parliament, but the money for the same must be appropri- 

 ated directly from the Treasury. 



When will any such steps be taken by the general govern- 

 ment of the United States for the preservation of the many 

 ancient mounds, earth-works, and other prehistoric antiqui- 

 ties of the United States ? 12 A, February 20, 1873, 297. 



PEEHISTOEIC REMAINS IN ICELAND. 



Dr. Robert, of Paris, calls attention to the fact of the exist- 

 ence in Iceland of chipped flint in considerable variety, and 

 of prehistoric age, or decidedly anterior to the discovery of 

 the island in 861 by the pirate Nadodd. 3 B^ May 8, 1873, 

 66. 



PREHISTORIC SACRIFICIAL MOUND IN AUSTRIA. 



Professor Woldrich gives an account of the discovery of a 

 sacrificial mound in the vicinity of Pulkau, in Lower Austria, 

 in which he succeeded in finding a great number of remains 

 of animals that, in his opinion, had been sacrificed in some 

 religious rites, possibly in connection with human victims, 

 some remains of which were also discovered. Numerous im- 

 plements were met with, some of them of stone, some of 

 bronze, and others of bone and horn; pottery also was found, 

 some of which was very tastefully ornamented. The prin- 

 cipal animals observed were the peat dog, the peat ox {Bos 

 hrachyceros, var.), and a larger species {B. 2yrimigenius) ; the 

 goat, sheep, fallow deer, and stag. 



The occurrence of the fallow deer among these remains is 

 considered of great interest, as substantiating the assertion 

 of Jeitteles that this animal was originally a native of Eu- 

 rope, and not, as generally supposed, introduced from an ad- 

 joining continent. Specimens of the pig, of the horse, and 

 of various bi^-ds were also found, but the latter were not dis- 



