44 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



discussion was then taken up by Sir John Evans, who at some length 

 expressed his dissent from the views thus far presented, holding that 

 nothing had yet been found in North America that would properly 

 be called -palaeolithic in the Old World — i. e., presenting certain 

 types of shaping, and associated with a properly extinct fauna. If 

 the remains thus found and described are truly associated with 

 glacial deposits, then we can only say that the neolithic period ex- 

 tends much farther back in America than it does in Europe. Pro- 

 fessor McGee followed in a somewhat similar strain, questioning the 

 age of the beds. Professors Putnam and Claypole responded; and 

 the whole discussion was a battle of chieftains on both sides, of great 

 interest, but with little definite result. The foreign archaeologists 

 are indisposed to admit the remote age of our American specimens; 

 and it is plain that a great deal remains to be done ere archaeology 

 in this country can be definitely adjusted to a recognized corre- 

 spondence with that of the European continent. 



In the department of Geography, the opening address of Prof. 

 J. Scott Keltie, on the areas of the globe that are yet unmapped and 

 awaiting the explorer, included an able summing up of geographical 

 progress during the Victorian era, embracing not only the opening 

 of the unknown interior regions of Asia, Africa, and Australia, but 

 the whole science of oceanography, and nearly the entire history of 

 polar and circumpolar exploration. A figure of much interest was 

 the explorer and " mighty hunter," F. C. Selous, of Africa, well 

 known to all the tribes from the Zambesi to the Cape, whose paper, 

 On the Economic Value of Rhodesia, was one that attracted much 

 attention. It is said that Mr. Selous is the original after whom 

 Rider Haggard drew his character of Alan Quatermain. Another 

 leading figure was Sir George Robertson, the defender of the 

 Chitral forts in the contest of 1896, who occupied the first place 

 after the president's address with an illustrated paper on Kafiristan 

 and the Kafirs. It was of interest also to see Prince Krapotkin, 

 who presented papers in both this and the geological section, illus- 

 trated with maps, which he remarked had been kindly sent him 

 from Russia after his escape from prison! American geographical 

 work had a prominent place among the papers and proceedings of 

 this section, as may be seen from the following list: Mr. Marcus 

 Baker, Institutions Engaged in Geographical Work in the United 

 States; Prof. W. M. Davis, Geography as a University Subject, 

 and The Coastal Plain of Maine; Prof. R. E. Dodge, Scientific 

 Geography for Schools; Mr. Henry Gannett (communicated by 

 General Greely), The Material Conditions and Growth of the United 

 States; Mr. F. H. Newell, The Hydrography of the United States; 

 Prof. T. C. Mendenhall, The Geographical Work of the United 



