256 



NATURE 



[December 



remains rclatinj* to the military and domestic life of the 

 early people who huilt thorn, a subject ujwn which he wrote 

 many papers. Several of the structures which were known 

 to Mr. Mortimer forty or fifty years ago, or less, have since 

 entirely disappeared, as a result of agricultural and other 

 operations. Fortunately, Mr. Mortimer carefully recorded 

 his observations upon a large series of Ordnance maps of 

 the district, and also particulars of the barrows, the Roman 

 remains, the pits from which he obtained his geological 

 specimens (most of which are now closed), &c. 'Ihis valu- 

 able collection of maps has been presented by Major 

 Mortimer to the Municipal Museum at Hull, where it can 

 be referred to by students and others interested. In addi- 

 large numbers of sketches, plans, photographs, 

 &x., bearing upon East Yorkshire antiquities. 



The second annual general meeting of the Society of 

 Engineers (Incorporated) was held on December ii, Mr. 

 John Kennedy, vice-president, being in the chair. The 

 following were elected as the council and officers for 

 1912: — President, J. Kennedy; vice-presidents, A. Valon. 

 H. C. H. Shenton. N. Scorgie ; members of council, 

 H. .\dams, C. 1. W .ilrond, P. Griffith. T. E. Bower. 

 H. C. Adams, J. R. Boll, S. Cowper-Coles, H. P. May- 

 bury, B. H. M. Hewett, F. H. Hummel; associate member 

 of council, E. Scott-Snell ; hon. secretary and treasurer, 

 D. B. Butler. It was announced that premiums for papers 

 read at meetings and published in the Journal during 191 1 

 had been awarded as follows : — the president's gold medal 

 to Mr. W. R. Baldwin-Wiseman, for his paper on the 

 administrative aspect of water conservancy ; the Bessemer 

 premium of books or instruments, to the value of 5/. 55., 

 to Mr. R. W. A. Brewer, for his paper on two-stroke 

 cycle engines; the Clarke premium, value 5/. 5s., to Mr. 

 T. J. Gueritte, for his paper on the mechanical installa- 

 tion and upkeep of permanent way on railways; a society's 

 premium, value 5I. 3s., to Mr. E. Kilburn Scott, for his 

 paper on nitrogen products made with the aid of electric 

 power; a society's premium, value 3/. 3s., to Mr. Frank 

 r.. Woollard, for his paper entitled " Some Notes on 

 Drawing-office Organisation." 



The annual general meeting of the Scottish Meteor- 

 ological Society was held on December 12. From the re- 

 port of the council, which was adopted at the meeting, we 

 leani that during the past twelve months several additions 

 have been made to the society's system of stations. A 

 fully equipped station has been established by Mr. G. 

 Craig Sellar at Ardtornish, on the Sound of Mull, and 

 represents effectively an interesting region from which 

 observations were greatly needed. New stations have also 

 been established at Aviemore by the Aviemorc Station Hotel 

 Company, and at Carrbridge by the Rev. Andrew Doak, 

 and these will add to the scanty knowledge of the meteor- 

 ology of the Central Highlands. The council points out 

 once more that there is urgent need for additional informa- 

 tion regarding the rainfall of the Highland area and the 

 north of Scotland. Apart from the purely scientific value 

 of rainfall records, the rainfall of a district touches prac- 

 tical and sporting interests at many points, and it seems 

 to the council that it may reasonably look to large land- 

 owners and shoot-ng tenants for help. It may be pointed 

 out that the final report of the recent committee of inquiry 

 on grouse disease has something to say on the importance 

 of meteorological conditions in relation to the distribution 

 and the health of grouse. It appears that where rainfall 

 is very heavy there is little disease, but grouse are few, 

 the scarcity of the birds being due probably to the 

 deleterious effect on heather of a high rainfall. The 

 council elected for the ensuing twelve months is as 



NO. 2199, VOL. 88] 



follows : — President, Prof. .\. Crum Brown, l.R.is. 

 presidents, Ralph Richardiion, W.S., Dr. C. G. K 

 council. Sir David Paulin, Gilbert Thomson, H. M. Cad>.; 

 Sir A. Buchan-Hepburn, Bart., G. G. Chi<>holm. M 

 M'Callum Fairgrieve, J. Mackay Bernard, Dr. J. K 

 Milne, T. S. Muir ; hon. secretaries, R. T. Omond, E. M 

 Wedderbum, W.S. ; hon. treasurer, W. B. Wilson, W.^ 



In a report presented to the French Institute of .^nthi 

 pology, published in Comptes rendus for March-June, M 

 Boule discusses the morphology of the mammoth as dis- 

 played in recent discoveries of Palseolithic art. He points 

 out that certain physical peculiarities of the animal, which 

 were only recently established by the discovery of a speil- 

 mcn by M. WoUosowitch at Sanga-Iurach in 1908, already 

 appear in stone carvings dating from the Palaiolithic age. 



In vol. xxii., Nos. 4-5, of L'Anthropologie, Dr. Lalanne 

 and L'Abb<^ H. Breuil describe a series of remarkable 

 Palaeolithic sculptures on a cliff at Cap-Blanc, Laussel, 

 Dordogne. .Among the animals represented are a bison 

 and a pair of horses, depicted in the usual vigorous style 

 of the art of that period. This discovery supplies a 

 welcome addition to the cave sculptures of a similar class 

 already familiar to archaeologists. It is now proved that 

 these early artists, in addition to work carried out by 

 torchlight in dark, damp caves, executed similar sculptures 

 in the open air. 



The work of the modern school of French anthropolog}' 

 is largely devoted to the preparation of elaborate memoirs 

 in which the results of the investigation of specially interest- < 

 ing races are summed up and criticised, with a complete! 

 apparatus of facts and statistics. Such is the admirable 

 account contributed to vol. xxii., Nos. 4-5, of L'Anthn 

 pologie by Dr. Poutrin, entitled " Les N^grilles du Cent 

 Africain (type sous-dolichoc^phale)," in which he 

 collected all the information at present available on tl 

 Pygmy races. The introduction, illustrated by a mj 

 shows the distribution of these people, and is followed 

 a historical account of exploration and an elaborate surv* 

 of the physical characteristics. Probably no account of tl 

 remarkable race, already available to students, contains ^ 

 more complete survey of the ethnological problems cc 

 nected with the Pygmies of Africa. 



.According to the fourth annual report (1910-11) of tl 

 National Museum of Wales, the designs for the new buil 

 ing have been considerably modified, with, it is believ< 

 a great improvement in the general appearance of 

 structure. Illustrations are given of the exterior and 

 the entrance hall, together with plans of the ground-fl< 

 and the two floors above. A contract has been signed 

 the construction of the basement and sub-basement 

 that portion of the building proposed to be erected in 

 first instance, which includes the south block and 

 lecture theatre and gallery above, and work on this 

 commenced in September last. Considerable progress 

 been made in collecting specimens for exhibition and stud] 



We have received a copy of a petition from the nat 

 of India presented to H.M. the King at the Delhi Dur^ 

 (together with a covering appeal signed by K. S. J« 

 walla, of 45 Courthope Road, Hampstead). praying th.? 

 the supply of beef required for the British .Army in Ind 

 may in future be obtained from .Australia in place of Ind 

 itself. The petition is accompanied by a large illustratii 

 showing the various uses to which Indian cattle are p^. 

 So great is the demand in the country for cattle for pu: 

 poses of draught and agriculture that, according to t' 

 petition, cows are chiefly slaughtered for beef. This pra^ 

 tice is one of the causes which have led to a great dimir.u 



