304 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



depended on. They live entire!}' on lisli, and on a small esculent 

 plant, called camass, which they collect and store up lor winter, 

 as we do potatoes, and they cook them, as we do, by boiling and 

 bakinir. The camass di^£!:in<]: is a ":reat season of rhaiion for the 

 women of the various tribes, and answers to our haymaking or 

 harvest home. 



Westerly Drifting of the Komades from the 5th to the I9th Century. 

 — According to INIr. 11. II. Ilowarth, the Circassians of modern writ- 

 ers are identified with the White Kliaznrsof t!ie Byzantine and Ara- 

 bian writers, from the evidence oltradition, language, anil historical 

 notices, and also with the White Huns of Priscus. This fills the 

 area north of the Caspian and the Oral with a race of Ugrian 

 affinities, and very high culture; remarkable, too, for being the 

 last nation added to the list of Jewish proselytes. Tiie Turks, in 

 the 8th century, contrary to the opinion of Dr. Latham and others, 

 were confined to the countries east of the Altai Mountains; the 

 previous invaders of Europe^ Avares, Huns, etc., having all be- 

 longed to the great Ugrian family of races. 



Megalithic Monnments. — j\lr. A. L. Lewis read a paper on this 

 subject before the British Association. He said there exists a 

 practically unbroken chain of megalithic (Druidic) monuments ex- 

 tending from Indiato Great Britain . Who were their builders ? Cir- 

 cumstances — namely, such an identity of plan as could not be 

 accidental, extendmg through an unbroken chain of communica- 

 tion, and the existence of common practices and superstitions, and 

 other traces of affinity throughout that chain — lead to the conclu- 

 sion that there nmst at least have been a threat common influence 

 at work throughout this area, though possibly not an absolute 

 community of race. Judging from the probal)le social condition 

 of the builders of these monuments, the localities in which they 

 are principally found, the remains found with them, and other cir- 

 cumstances, they were probably- constructed under Celtic influ- 

 ences, at least in Europe and Africa. The consideration of a num- 

 ber of facts induces the belief that the single upright stones were 

 used as memorial pillars, the circles and alignments primarily as 

 I^laces of sacrifice, and the dolmens or table stones, of which there 

 are two well-marked varieties, as places of sepulture on the one 

 hand, and places of sacrifice or memorial on the other hand. 



Fossil Asiatic Elephant. — In the " Proceedings of the Geologi- 

 cal Society" (Oct., 18G8), Dr. Adams announces the discovery of 

 the Asiatic elephant in a fossil state, from the examination of a 

 tooth found in Japan, 40 miles from the sea, and at the base of a 

 surface coal bed. Mr. Busk, from the examination of a plaster 

 cast of the specimen, considers it the anti'penultimate upper left 

 molar of what, if found in the recent condition, he should unhesi- 

 tatingly refer to Elephas Indicus. The differences, which are 

 unimportant, are the considerable curvature, greater size, and 

 somewhat greater proj^orlionate width, and greater thickness of 

 the plates. 



Development in Veiiebrates. — In a recently publislied work, Dr. 

 Wilhelm His, of Basel, specially insists on the presence of two 

 germinal elements, — the principal or primary, and the subordi- 



