88 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 



heiglit, returned to it only as a place wlierein to bury their dead. 

 The skeletons undoubtedly belong to people of the age of the 

 reindeer, and M. Pruner-Bey refers them to his Mongoloid group, 

 and to the Esthonian type. The human remains, both with regard 

 to their condition and to their proportions, exhibit several pecu- 

 liarities, which s^jace will not permit us to notice. 



In the 'Anthropological Keview' for October is an article 

 by Professor P. Broca, " On the Ancient Cave-Men of Perigord ;" 

 but as the article is only an abridgment of a memoir, which will 

 appear in the ' EeliquiaB Aquitanicae,' we defer our notice of it 

 until it shall appear in its proper place, stating here, however, 

 that the author considers that we have in the Les Eyzies' skeletons 

 evidence of a tribe, "entirely different from any other race, ancient 

 or modern, that we have ever seen, or heard of." 



In the annual report of the Smithsonian Institution for the 

 year 1866 is a paper, by Dr. D. G, Brintou, "On the Artificial 

 Shell-Moimds and Deposits," which occur in great numbers along 

 the south coast of the United States, especially in Georgia and 

 Florida. These mounds consist of the detached valves of Ostrea 

 Virginica, Venus mercenaria, and Vnio Virginiana, and contain 

 flint arrow-heads, fragments of pottery, and charcoal. Some of 

 them attain enormous dimensions — one at the mouth of the Alta- 

 maha river, covering ten acres of ground, and containing about 

 80,000 cubic yards. Another, about four miles from the mouth 

 of Crystal river, in the form of a truncated cone, 30 feet in 

 diameter and 40 feet in height, is exclusively composed of oyster- 

 shells and vegetable mould ; with forest trees, some of them 4 feet 

 in diameter, growing upon its surface. 



The gigantic scale of the mounds serves easily to distinguish 

 them from the Kjokkenmoddings of Denmark, which seldom attam 

 to a height of more than 10 feet, Dr, Briuton considers them to 

 be the work of known tribes of Indians ; but, even if it be so, what 

 length of time is required for the gradual accretion of such im- 

 mense accumulations, and to what purposes were they applied? 



In the same report, Mr. C, Bay describes the discovery, on the 

 left bank of the Cahokia creek, at the northern extremity of Ilhnois 

 town, opposite St, Louis, of a place where the manufactm-e of 

 earthenware had been carried on by Indians. The pieces of pottery 

 were discovered near an old fosse, and varied from g-th to -^ths of an 

 inch in tliickness, accor<ling to the size of the vessels. They were 

 made of clay, mixed either with coarsely pulverized Unio shells or 

 siliceous sand, and were coated generally on the exterior, but some- 

 times on both sides, with a thick layer of paint. The aboriginal 

 potters usually formed their vessels by hand, but in some instances 

 appear to have modelled them in baskets woven of rushes and 

 willows, 80 as to produce a rough ornamentation. The fragments 



