RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 63 



was Aurignacian, and he was thus in agreement with Mr. Moir 

 and Mr. Reginald Smith. Several large fragments of primitive 

 pottery were found in the lower floor, and these would, of 

 course, constitute a most remarkable discovery if the supposed 

 Mousterian date of the floor could be placed beyond doubt. 

 The associated mammalian remains cannot be said, however, to 

 lend any very decisive support to the theory of a Pleistocene 

 date. 



The bones found belong to Cervus elephas, C. capreolus, C. 

 megaceros (probably), Bos longifrons, Sus scrofa, Capra hircus, 

 several varieties of horse, and to a species of elephant. The 

 Elephantidae are represented only by a single specimen, the 

 part of a long bone, probably a tibia. The general appearance 

 of the fauna is thus essentially Holocene, but the elephantine 

 bone (which is presumably that of a mammoth) is, of course, a 

 contradiction. One would be glad to know any reasons which 

 may exist for doubting that this apparently anachronistic tibia 

 is of the nature of a derived fossil. The plants found in the 

 associated peat are also of modern types. A few human remains 

 (a fragment of a skull, another of a humerus, and another of a 

 femur) were found in the lower floor, and these are declared by 

 Prof. Keith, and less decisively by Dr. Duckworth, to belong 

 to H. sapiens. In this respect also, therefore, it will be seen 

 that the discovery, if it be correct to assign it to the Mousterian, 

 is of the first importance. In the case of the famous Grime's 

 Graves, excavated by Mr. Moir's friends of the Prehistoric 

 Society of East Anglia, there was a keen controversy as to 

 whether the date was Neolithic or Pleistocene. In that instance 

 I thought that the evidence of the mammifauna was convincingly 

 in favour of a Neolithic date. The students of flints have no 

 doubt over-reached themselves, but it must be admitted that 

 in this case the mammalian remains are not equally decisively 

 against the Pleistocene dating. 



Another interesting contribution to the same number of 

 the Journal is : " Some South Slav Customs as shown in 

 Serbian Ballads and by Serbian Authors," by Edith Durham. 

 The article includes translations of certain tales by one Vuk 

 Vrchevitch who lived in the first half of last century, and Miss 

 Durham adds to the interest of these stories by giving the com- 

 ments made thereon by primitive Montenegrins among whom 

 she lived. The article is entirely untechnical and gives an 



