THE UNIVERSAL RACES CONGRESS. 30t) 



religion, the Buddhist religion and the Chinese philosophy. We are more 

 aware of it to-day because of the modern possibility of international 

 exchange of ideas and ideals." 



Gigantic Reptiles from the Cape Province. 



— In i<)0() Drs. W. Janensch and E. Hennig landed at Linde, on 

 the east coast of Africa, to investigate the occurrence of gigantic 

 reptilian hones which had been discovered by Herr B. Sattler. 

 at Tendagura, some three days' march from the coast. For 

 two years they were busy digging, uncovering about forty 

 skeletons of reptiles. Some of these were larger than the 

 famous Diplodocus from the North American Prairies, with a 

 humerus 6ft. 6 in. long, and a neck 40 feet in length. Others 

 were not larger than a pointer dog. but nearly all were entirely 

 new varieties of animals. In looking up the literature. Dr. 

 Hennig came across a notice of the late Dr. \Y. G. Atherstone's. 

 on his find of what he called Iguanodon bones on the Bushman's 

 River, some $$ miles south-west of Grahamstown. The account 

 was published in the first volume of the Eastern Province Maga- 

 zine, dated 1857, and the skull was subsequently described by 

 Sir Richard Owen as that of Anthodon scrrarins. Dr. Hennig 

 accordingly wrote to Prof. Schwarz, of the Rhodes University 

 College, asking him to go down to the Bushman's River and 

 investigate, and during the last Whitsuntide holidays he did so, 

 taking his students with him. The result has exceeded expecta- 

 tions ; at the end of the first day the thigh bone of one of the 

 reptiles was discovered in the red Cretaceous marls from which 

 Dr. Atherstone obtained his Anthodon. and later on parts of 

 other animals were unearthed. The first bone is the femur of 

 a reptile quite as large as Diplodocus. The shaft of the bone had 

 splintered away as is usual in these remains when they lie near 

 the surface, because the bones have exceedingly thin walls, and 

 in life were cavernous and filled with air, thus enabling the beasts 

 to support their gigantic bulk. The two ends of the bone, how- 

 ever, indicate that it was originally some five feet in length, and 

 that the animal to which it belonged was undoubtedly the largest 

 that ever lived in South Africa. 



A properly-equipped expedition will shortly proceed to the 

 place and endeavour to excavate more of this extraordinary 

 beast. It is interesting in this connection to remember that the 

 natives in Rhodesia have a legend that animals of the Dinosaur 

 type are still living in their country, and white men have actually 

 seen their foot-prints. 



Near the " Iguanodon Kloof," as Dr. Atherstone called the 

 place where his Anthodon was discovered, there is a very remark- 

 able cave ; the Alum cave. It is excavated between the Enon 

 Conglomerate and the underlying Witteberg beds, and the alum 

 forms in crevices in the shale on the unconformity. The alum 

 is known as Bushmanite, from its occurrence at this particular 

 place, and is a variety of the manganese alum Apjohnite. It is 

 often mf-'aken for asbestos. 



