208 Chronicles of Science. | April, 
Roman conquest. From the fusion of these several tribes with the 
original Celtic inhabitants arose the numerous varieties of people 
which existed at the latter period. And where the influence of the 
Roman invasion was least felt the aboriginal races have been pre- 
served in the purest condition,—for instance, the Basques. 
M. Gervais’s book contains the discussion of too many large 
subjects to be thoroughly reviewed in a Chronicle; we therefore 
refer our readers to the work itself—a most complete exposition 
of the subject in all its bearings, as connected with the history of 
France and of the French people. 
In the numbers of the ‘ Intellectual Observer’ for December and 
January, Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt continues his description of the 
Grave-mounds of Derbyshire, and their contents. As we stated in 
our last Chronicle, the greater number belong to the Celtic period, 
the smallest number to the Romano-British period, and an inter- 
mediate number to the Anglo-Saxon. The mounds of the Celtic 
. period were described in the papers which we then noticed; in 
those now before us, the author describes the few Romano-British 
tumuli, and those of the Anglo-Saxon period. Mr. Jewitt states in 
explanation of the fact that so few Roman monuments occur im 
Derbyshire, that the Romans did not make regular settlements in 
that county, that they “seldom raised tumuli over their dead, or, 
in this country, placed any ostentatious monuments over their 
remains.” The interments which have been discovered include ex- 
amples of burial both by inhumation and by cremation. The 
articles found in the graves, of course, are not numerous; but they 
include pottery and glass, coins, fibulz, armille, and other orna- 
ments (of bronze and iron), knives, spear-heads, combs, &c. 
The Anglo-Saxon period is remarkably well represented, the 
graves being generally rectangular cists, or pits cut in the ground, 
to the depth of from two or three to seven or eight feet. Mr. 
Jewitt gives an interesting account of the burial by mhumation ; 
but it seems that cremation was the dominant practice. With the 
urns “but few articles, either of personal ornament or otherwise, 
are found;” but where the body had been placed entire in the 
graye the objects are numerous, and frequently elaborate, including 
“swords, knives, seaxes, spear-heads, umbones of shields, buckles, 
helmets, querns, drinking-cups, enamels, gold, silver, and bronze 
articles, baskets, buckets, draughtsmen, combs, beads and necklaces, 
rings, earrings, caskets, armlets, fibula, articles for the chatelaine, 
pottery,” &c., examples of which are described by the author. 
“ Pfahlbauten in Meklenburg ” is the title under which several 
reports by Dr. G. C. F. Lisch are bemg published in a collected 
form. These reports were originally published in the ‘ Jahrbuch’ 
of the Society of History and Antiquities of Meklenburg, and two 
instalments of the collection have now been republished—namely, 
