Sept. 28, 1876] 



NATURE 



489 



had a woolly appearance, and resembled at first glance that of 

 the African negro, but it was in reality much finer and softer. 

 The beard was worn short, and usually trimmed, with a tuft 

 beneath the chin. They shave with the teeth of the shark, an 

 oyster shell, or a piece of bottle glass, and perform the opera- 

 tion with the skill of accomplished barbers. In the northern 

 islands the men went completely naked ; but in the southern 

 islands, where the climate was slightly cooler, they affected a 

 scant covering, after the fashion of the primitive fig-leaf. They 

 were fond of decorating the he^d with flowers and feathers, and 

 of tattooing the face with red and blue pigments, which imparted 

 to them a savage and ferocious look. All things considered, 

 the physical condition of the islanders did not appear to mani- 

 fest any sign of degeneration. A very complete account of the 

 social and intellectual condition of these islanders was given. 

 The slight idea of religion possessed by the islanders might be 

 described as the most primitive form of Paganism. On some 

 of the islands they worshipped rude idols of wood, while in 

 others they seemed to put implicit faith in imaginary gods who 

 were supposed to inhabit the highest mountain tops. The dread 

 of evil spirits and demons was universal among them. The 

 natives of each island had a distinctive dialect of their own, and 

 even the various tribes inhabiting each island had also distinct 

 and separate dialects. 



Mr. \V, Pengelly, F.R.S., gave an account of the contents of 

 an um which "had been found in a field near Chudleigh in 

 Devonshire. The urn contained a large number of pieces of 

 pottery supposed to be Roman, and a number of calcined bones 

 which were the bones of goats or sheep. This was the only 

 occasion, as far as he knew, in which the bones of animals had 

 been found in such urns. 



Dr. Knox read a paper On Bosjes Skulls. One of his speci- 

 mens had a capacity of only sixty-four cubic inches ; the longest 

 measured seventy-foUi -;ubic inches. The skulls belonged to the 

 long-headed type, though not of the longest. The skeleton to 

 which one of the skulls belonged, was remarkable for the wedge- 

 like shape of the pelvic bone, which was also very deep. 



Dr. Allen Thomson exhibited and described two skulls from 

 the Andaman Isles ; and referred to the custom the natives had 

 of preserving portions of their friends' skeletons and wearing them 

 as ornaments. The skulls of their husbands were actually worn 

 upon the shoulders of widows. — Prof. Cleland described the skull 

 of a Sooloo Islander. — Dr. McCann, in a paper On the Origin oj 

 Instinct, brought forward well-known objections to Mr. Darwin's 

 explanations, referring to the descent of bees, the first birds 

 hatching eggs, &c. 



Nearly the whole of one day was occupied by the reading of a 

 paper by Prof Barrett, of Dubl n. On some Phenomena Asso- 

 ciated with Abnormal Conditions of Mind, on which an excited 

 discussion arose. Many phenomena of mesmerism, clairvoyance, 

 and spiritualism were alleged, and Mr. Crookes, Mr. Wallace, 

 Lord Rayleigh, and Dr. Carpenter expressed opinions which are 

 well known, based on facts witnessed by themselves. 



The work done in this department does not compare well with 

 the result at Bristol last year. Scarcely anything of importance 

 was brought forward in prehistoric anthropology. Some good 

 accounts of savage tribes of the present day were given ; but 

 otherwise the scientific value of the department is this year com- 

 paratively small. The concluding portion of Mr. "Wallace's pre- 

 sidential address is perhaps the most noteworthy feature in 

 anthropology, as exhibited at Glasgow. 



SECTION E.— Geography. 



There were an unusual number of papers of general interest 

 and importance in this as well as in Sections F. and G., and we 

 therefore regret that our space does not permit of reporting them 

 at length. 



Mr. Octavius Stone read a paper On his Recent Journeys in 

 New Guinea. The island, he said, extended in a south-easterly 

 direction for a distance of over 1,400 miles, having a maximum 

 width of 450 miles and a minimum of only 20. The neighbour- 

 hood of the Baxter River and the entire shores to the west of the 

 Papuan Gulf for an average of 100 miles inland were low and 

 more or less swampy, being intersected by water-courses and 

 covered with forests of mangrove trees. This part of the country 

 was thinly populated by the Dande Papuans, who in conse- 

 quence were subjected to periodical raids from the adjoining 

 islands of Borgu, Saibai, and Daun, the invaders generally re- 

 turning victorious with the heads or jawbones of their slaughtered 



victims. The only trace of cultivation he saw was 80 miles up 

 the river, where a space of six acres had been neatly fenced 

 round, and planted with yams, taros, sugar-cane, and tobacco. 

 Outside the inclosure were two or three uninhabited bark huts, 

 which appeared to afford shelter to these roving people, in which 

 they prolonged their stay, as game was more or less plentiful. 

 Traces of wild boar and kangaroo were observed in the Upper 

 Baxter. No other large animal was known to exist. They were 

 hunted with the bow and barbed arrow, while the war arrows 

 were poisoned by steeping in the putrid carcase of a victim until 

 sufficiently saturated. The district of the Baxter River contrasted 

 strikingly with the Fly River discovered by Capt. Evans, whose 

 banks for sixty miles swarmed with human beings. Mr. Stone's 

 impression of the western coast was that it would prove a grave 

 to such Europeans as should choose to reside there. This part of 

 th« country was inhabited by the Papuan race, a dark race of 

 people, though not so dark as the Australian negro, and one of 

 cannibal propensities. The Eastern Peninsula, on the other 

 hand, was inhabited by the Malay race. Of this race Mr. Stone 

 thought they had come to New Guinea from islands farther east, 

 some of them making the change at a comparatively recent date. 

 This race was far above the savage, both in intellectual and 

 moral attributes. They were cultivators of the soil — each having 

 his own plantation — and strongly opposed to the cannibalism 

 and polygamy which obtained among their western neighbours, 

 the Papuans. The women, too, of the Malay race were not 

 debased as among the dark race, but mixed with the men, with 

 whom they shared the management of public affairs. The Owen 

 Stanley mountains ran through the centre of the country, from 

 south to north, and the east country was on the whole favourable 

 to cultivation, and probably possessed great mineral wealth. It 

 accordingly offered sufficient inducement for colonisation, but 

 colonisation, if attempted, would require to be set about with 

 much previous consideration, owing to the peculiar situation of 

 the peninsula and the circumstances of the people. 



Mr. Kerry Nicholls read a - aper (?« the Islands of the Coral 

 Sea, which embraces that portion of the Pacific Ocean extending 

 from the south of New Guinea, westward to the coast of Aus- 

 tralia, southward to New Caledonia, and eastward to the New 

 Hebrides. The New Hebrides' banks and Santa Cruz Islands, 

 he said, constitute an almost continuous chain of fertile volcanic 

 islands, extending for a distance of 700 miles, between the 

 parallels of 9° 45', and 20° 16' south latitude, and the meridians 

 of 165° 40', and 170° 33' east longitude. Espiritu Santo, the 

 largest island of the archipelago was seventy-five miles long, and 

 forty miles broad. The geological formation of the islands was 

 composed of volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The chain of 

 primary volcanic upheaval might be traced running in a general 

 course longitudinally through the islands always in their longest 

 direction, the axis of eruption being marked by active and 

 quiescent volcanoes. On the north end of the island of Vanu 

 Lava there were extensive springs of boiling water, solfa- 

 taros, and fumaroles. The hot springs were of two kinds — some 

 were permanent fountains where water was in a constant state of 

 ebullition, others were only intermittent, and the water became 

 heated at certain intervals, when it varied from a tepid degree of 

 heat to boiling point. The physical features of the islands were 

 remarkably bold, and betokened at first sight their volcanic 

 origin. The plains, table lands, and valleys of the mountain 

 region were, many of them, of considerable extent. 



Capt. V. L. Cameron, R.N., C.B , read a paper On his 

 yourney through Equatorial Africa. Capt. Cameron said that 

 soon after entering the country from the east coast he came to a 

 large plateau, 4,000 feet in height, encircling Lake Tanganyika, 

 and forming the water-shed between the Congo and the streams 

 flowing into Lake Sangora. Another table-land to the south 

 rose to the height of 3,000 feet. The water-shed between the 

 two basins of the Lualaba and the Congo at that part is a large, 

 nearly level country, and during the rainy season the floods cover 

 the ground between the two rivers, and a great portion of it 

 might easily be made navigable. One thing he noticed in Africa 

 was this system of water-sheds, dividing the country into portions, 

 each having its own peculiarity, and also that in each there was 

 a difference in the habits of the natives. Within twenty days he 

 crossed the Nsagara Mountains and came upon a level open 

 country where a great quantity of African com was grown, the 

 stalks of which rose to the height of from 20 to 24 feet. In this 

 country no animal could live except the goat, the tsetse fly being 

 destructive to all others. The principal geological formation was 

 sandstone. A few marches brought him to Ugogo, an extensive 

 plain broken by two ranges of hills, composed of loose masses of 



