156 NATURAL SCIENCE. September. 



the females resemble one of the boreal species (Putorius cicognam), 

 while the males are similar to two of the austral forms. According to 

 Dr. Merriam, the explanation of this phenomenon is that the female 

 in mammals is often less specialised than the male, and therefore 

 approaches the ancestral type more nearly : the inference in the 

 present case being that the intermediate form is derived from the P. 

 cicognaiii type. On similar grounds it is shown that the arctic weasel 

 is probably a descendant from the same form. It may be remarked 

 that in certain closely-allied species of birds the same peculiarity 

 occurs. 



Of two papers by G. S. Miller, junr., on American bats, one 

 describes the milk-dentition in Desinodus, a genus of blood-sucking 

 bats ; the other contains an account of a species of Thyropteva, an 

 interesting peculiarity of which is the occurrence in the hind foot of a 

 kind of sjmdactyhsm, the third and fourth digits being so closely 

 united that their claws appear to form one large nail. 



The West Prussian Museum at Dantzig. 



In the Report for 1895 of the Dantzig Museum, Dr. Conwentz 

 gives an interesting account of a " prehistoric " boat dug out of a field 

 in Baumgarth, near the River Drausen, in West Prussia. It was 

 a saying among the people that a boat lay buried under this field, 

 and that in old times pieces of the wood had been dug up. Public 

 interest in the matter was aroused by the landowner, Mr. E. von 

 Riesen, who in the summer of 1894 ^^^ ^o work and found in a ditch 

 a blackened piece of oak, pierced by an iron nail. Thereupon the 

 Museum authorities decided to investigate thoroughly, though, owing 

 to unfavourable weather, their task was only begun in June, 1895. At 

 the place where the boat was found the ground consists of a layer of 

 peat one metre deep, under which lies river-sand. The boat was 

 found in a natural position, with the keel downwards ; its planks were 

 loosened, and several pieces were missing. All the pieces found were 

 sent to the museum, where they were carefully cleaned and soaked in a 

 mixture of petroleum and varnish, to prevent contraction and drying- 

 up of the wood. The whole boat has been reconstructed, and a figure 

 of it is given, from which we see that the art of boat-building must 

 have been already well advanced in those days. 



The age of this boat is somewhat doubtful, but Dr. Conwentz 

 brings forward some carefully worked out arguments, which he 

 sums up as follows : — " When one considers that this boat, in its 

 shape and build, resembles the vessels of the Vikings ; that at the 

 Viking time, about the middle of the ninth century, a traveller came 

 over the sea from Schleswig to this neighbourhood, a journey whose 

 details, as recorded in history, exactly fit my conclusion ; that in this 

 part countless coins and weapons are known from the Viking time ; and 

 finally that this boat was found buried away from the Sorgefluss and the 



