1893. 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, Tribner and 
Coyis924 Price ss: 
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 7ésumé 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. 
LZ 
