12 NATURAL SCIENCE [July 



characterise this early attempt at representing the human form. 

 The figure is interesting when brought into comparison with other 

 early statuettes from Laugerie-Basse and Brassempouy. It is now 

 in the Musee de Saint-Germain, near Paris. 



A paper by Cecil Torr aims at showing that the so-called ship- 

 designs upon certain ancient Egyptian pottery vases, are in reality 

 representations of ramparts with towers, etc. This certainly seems 

 a more plausible explanation than the ship-theory, but there is, un- 

 fortunately, no proof that even this interpretation is the right one. 

 It is well enough faute de mieux. 



Among the ' Miscellanea ' there is to be noted an account of 

 Anthropological work done in Spain and Portugal in 1897. There 

 is evidence of considerable activity in this science in its various 

 branches. In fact it appears to have been the most progressive of 

 all the sciences during the year. 



The Calaveras Skull 



Tx 1886 Mr Mattison, who was prospecting in Calaveras County, 

 California, sunk a shaft through four beds of lava down to the 

 auriferous gravels at a depth of 127 feet. History does not relate 

 how much gold he found, but all the world was soon aware that he 

 discovered at the bottom of his shaft a human skull along with small 

 human bones and other objects. In the same gravels, beneath the 

 lava beds, there have also been found a rude stone pestle and mortar, 

 and a dish of steatite. The skull is generally considered to be of an 

 ancient type of structure, but many authors have considered the 

 worked objects to be of somewhat advanced character. We have 

 repeated this story because the skull and other objects, which 

 belonged to the late Prof. J. D. Whitney, have recently been 

 presented by his sister, Miss Maria Whitney, to the Peabody 

 Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge, 

 Mass. At the time of its discovery the skull naturally caused 

 great commotion in the scientific world, and the echoes of the 

 discussion even reached literary men. At all events it is un- 

 necessary for us to repeat the well-known Address of Bret Harte 

 to the Pliocene Skull, in which the poet expressed his view by 

 making the Skull reply : 



" Which my name is Bowers, and my crust was busted 

 Falling down a shaft in Calaveras County : 

 But I'd take it kindly if you'd send the pieces 

 Home to old Missouri ! " 



The Geological Controversy in Austria 



Austrian geologists have been for some time agitated by a dispute 

 between Dr Alexander Bittner and Professor E. von Mojsisovics 



