1869.] GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 89 



of philology, the skulls are mute enough ; nevertheless, the con- 

 formation of the bony phite leads us to couclude that, at least 

 phonetically, the language of our cave-dwellers was neither Aryan 

 nor Semitic. In fact we find their peculiar palate low and extend- 

 ing forwards, only in those modern races which have a weak pho- 

 nology, and sweet at times; and such are the Finnish idioms." 



All the various implements and remains described in the 

 Reliquice Aquitanicce are profusely illustrated with excellent 

 lithographs. 



Great attention is now given in the Old World to nrchcEological 

 studies, and large quantities of valuable facts and collections have 

 been accumulated. Anl though some of the theories founded on 

 these facts are rather wild, still the facts themselves always remain, 

 and nothing can tend more to the elucidation of the habits and 

 customs of the ancient pre-historic man in Europe, and the uses 

 of their implements, than the study of still existing tribes of 

 savages, or those which have but lately died out. Especially as 

 it is always found that the customs and implements of all savage 

 people of little intelligence, wherever found, are so nearly 

 identical. 



A great deal more attention might profitably be given to such 

 studies in America, more especially in Canada, where we have so 

 many interesting remains of its former possessors, and their 

 immediate descendants still living among us. G. M. D. 



Note on the Blastoidea. — The remains of the Blastoidea 

 have as yet proved to be extremely rare in the Canadian forma- 

 tions. The whole collection in the Museum of the Survey consists 

 of only five small specimens, two of Cadaster, and three Pentre- 

 mites. The study of these with a view to their description led 

 me to inquire into the subject of the functions of the summit 

 apertures of the several genera that have been referred to the 

 order. As our material was not sufiicient for such an investiga- 

 tion, I appUed to S. S. Lyon, Esq., of Jefferson ville, Indiana, one 

 of the Geologists of the Kentucky Survey, and he supplied me 

 with a large collection from which I shall endeavor to prove : — 



1. That the tubular apparatus beneath the ambulacra of Pentre- 

 mites is the homologue of the so-called "Pectinated rhombs" of 

 the Cystidea, — that the five orifices heretofore supposed to be 

 ovarian apertures were respiratory in their function — the larger 

 of the five being also the mouth and the vent, and that the central 



