i893. SOME NEW BOOKS. 147 



civilisation, and that both belong to the same geographical area. 

 Historians often ignore the less pleasing of the two records, and 

 magnify the more pleasing. For instance, the records of life in 

 various parts of London at the present day are painfully different, 

 so are those in many parts of the Hebrides. Some of the conclusions 

 of the author may be startling to those who have given no attention 

 to the subject. He says: — "It would appear, then, that cannibal 

 rites were continued in these islands until historic times ; that a naked 

 people continued to live under our sovereigns until the epoch which 

 witnessed the greatness of Shakespeare ; that head-hunting and other 

 indications of savage culture did not cease with the advent of civilis- 

 ing influences, that, in fact, the practices which help us to realise 

 that some of the ancient British tribes were pure savages, help us to 

 realise also that savagery was not stamped out all at once and in 

 every place, and that, judged by the records of history, there must 

 have remained little patches of savagery beneath the fair surface 

 which the historian presents to us when he tells us of the doings of 

 Alfred, Harold, William, Edward, or Elizabeth." We wonder why 

 the author refrains from adding that "little patches of savagery" 

 continue to manifest themselves alongside of the " advanced guard 

 of the nation." 



Man and the Glacial Period. By Professor G. Frederick Wright. [Interna- 

 tional Scientific Series.] Pp. 385. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner and 

 Co., 1892. Price 5s. 



The new volume by Professor Wright is somewhat disappointing. 

 Another book has been added to the fast-growing literature of the 

 Glacial Period, but we cannot feel that any real advance has been 

 made in our knowledge of the subject, or that the author has even 

 given us a good lesiiine of what is already known. No doubt to 

 most European readers the account of the American Glacial deposits 

 will be new; but so many of the statements made have been challenged 

 by competent American authorities, that we should hesitate to 

 recommend the book. In face of the explicit repudiation of all responsi- 

 bility by the United States Geological Survey, of which Professor 

 Wright was formerly an assistant, it will be safer to wait till a 

 larger area has been properly examined. 



The title of Professor Wright's book scarcely leads one to expect 

 that less than a sixth of the volume has anything to do with the 

 antiquity of man, the rest being taken up with stock subjects, such as 

 glaciers and glacier motion, ancient glacial deposits of various parts 

 of the world, the cause of the Glacial Period, &c. If this section were 

 well done, we should not object, but it shows an imperfect knowledge 

 of the literature, and an inability always to select good authorities 

 for districts with which the author is not personally acquainted. As 

 to the genuineness of the mortars, and the clay image, stated to have 

 been found at great depths in the Western States, we prefer to suspend 

 our judgment till American geologists are satisfied. We have had 

 a considerable experience of the miscellaneous articles said to be 

 found in mines and quarries, and without in the least suggesting bad 

 faith on the part of the finders, we may remind our readers of the 

 living toads discovered in coal, of the horse-bones or garden snails 

 found in the Chalk, and of the miscellaneous articles unintentionally 

 dropped down deep borings, to be brought up again by the boring 

 tool. 



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