402 



NATURE 



[March 23, 1876 



the explorers to attribute the find to the earliest cave 

 period. The position of the human remains, however, 

 above the relic beds would, as Mr. Boyd Dawkins has 

 shown in his work on " Cave- Hunting," be sufficient to" 

 throw doubt on their contemporaneity with the other 

 relics of the cave were it not that skeletons have been 

 since found in other caverns in the valley, and more par- 

 ticularly in that of Laugerie Basse, in positions which 

 make it certain that they are of the age of the works of art 

 found with them, and these skeletons correspond in their 

 osteological peculiarities with those of Cro-Magnon. In 

 both places the skulls are dolichocephalic, and both afford 

 instances of men of large stature having platycnemic 

 tibias, one of those from Cro-Magnon being, according 

 to Boyd Dawkins, the extremest case of platycnemism on 

 record. We have therefore good grounds for believing 

 that markedly different types of mankind existed in the 

 south of Europe during the reindeer period. This result 

 has been held by polygenists to afford satisfactory con- 

 firmation of their views, but we may be permitted to 

 doubt the validity of such conclusions. If, as has been 

 suggested by Prof. Huxley, this part of Europe was occu- 

 pied in the earliest times by a race of Melanochroi, con- 

 sisting of a mixture of the dark long-headed race of the 

 south with the fair and presumably short-headed race of the 

 north, it is evident that types as divergent as any that are 

 to be found at the present time must have existed amongst 

 the earliest known inhabitants of this region. A long 

 previous period of geographical separation under different 

 climatic conditions would be sufficient to give permanence 

 to varieties as distinct as any that have been brought to 

 light by the researches of Anthropologists. We are far 

 from believing that the reindeer period has carried us 

 more than a short way towards the origin of the human 

 race. 



Since the explorations of Messrs. Lartet and Christy 

 were brought to a close, another chapter has been added 

 to the history of the reindeer period by the discovery of 

 Mr. Conrad Merk in the cave of Kesslerloch, near Thayn- 

 gen, in Switzerland ; the value of this discovery is greatly 

 enhanced by its vicinity to the relics of the later inha- 

 bitants of the lakes. Had the lake habitations been 

 occupied at the same time as the cave, evidence of 

 connection must undoubtedly have been found, but the 

 contents of the cave point undeniably to a period contem- 

 poraneous with the remoter Troglodytes of the Dordogne. 

 Amongst the fauna the presence of the mammoth, rhino- 

 ceros, cave-bear, lion, and reindeer are alone sufficient to 

 warrant this conclusion, whilst at the same time the 

 works of art show a most remarkable resemblance to 

 those of the French caves, and an equally marked con- 

 trast to those of the oldest of the Swiss lake villages. 

 The carved harpoon heads of bone, the absence of 

 pottery, the presence of deer-horns perforated^with large 

 holes bored from both sides, the use of which is unknown, 

 and above all the engravings of animals, especially the 

 reindeer, upon the horns of those animals, show that 

 a condition of culture corresponding to that of the Dor- 

 dogne people must have existed here. 



Opinions differ as to which of the two localities have 

 produced the highest types of art ; the difference of style 

 observable in the engravings is such as might be expected 

 to exist amongst remote tribes, but the resemblance, when 



compared with the productions of other races of savages 

 is no less remarkable. 



One of the engravings, attributed to the cave at Kess- 

 lerloch, calls for a few remarks. Of the genuineness of 

 the relics discovered in this cave, no doubt has been 

 entertained, with the exception of two. One of these, 

 said to have been found by a workman 'in a heap of 

 rubbish after the excavations had been completed, and 

 under circumstances which gave rise to suspicion, repre- 

 sents a fox drawn front view, with the hind quarters fore- 

 shortened. The specimen has been placed in the Christy 

 collection in Victoria Street, not as a genuine relic of the 

 cave, but for convenience of future reference. It is worthy 

 of observation that in all the genuine engravings from the 

 caves of both places the animals are invariably drawn with 

 a side view, and generally following each other in the same 

 direction, much as a child might have drawn them, and 

 the same peculiarity is often to be noticed in the bone 

 engravings of the Esquimaux. The forger of Kesslerloch 

 was no doubt not aware of this, or a feebler exercise of 

 his artistic talent would have served him in better stead. 

 He has, however, done good service by drawing attention 

 to the fact that the fore-shortening of a figure represents 

 a phase of art at which the men of the reindeer period 

 had not arrived. Surprise has been expressed by many 

 at the truth and freedom of some of these designs, apper- 

 taining to so remote a period of man's history ; but when 

 we consider how early the power of drawing animals is 

 shown by many of our own children, and how much plea- 

 sure they take in exercising it, we need not wonder that a 

 great development of the faculty of imitation should be 

 found to exist side by side with the proofs of a low con- 

 dition of culture. Upon the whole we see nothing in 

 these or any of the prehistoric discoveries of our time 

 to weaken our faith in a slow but continuous progression 

 from lower to higher forms of art and industry. 



THE BOTH K AMP SUN OBSERVATIONS 



Beobachtungen angestellt auf der Sternwarte des Katn- 

 merherrn von Biiloiv. Heft III. Edited by Dr. O. 

 Lohse. 



WHOEVER knows the good work that has been done, 

 at the Solar Observatory at Bothkamp will hear 

 with regret that the observatory has ceased to exist. It 

 seems that the work was discontinued as soon as Dr. 

 Vogel left it to take his place in the new observatory of 

 Berlin. The history of M. von Billow's observatory is a 

 fresh proof that work which requires long and continued 

 observations cannot be made dependent on the generosity 

 of a single man, but must be carried on by the State ; 

 yet everybody will join in Dr. Lohse's hope that the pro- 

 prietor of the observatory, to whose liberality we are 

 indebted for the observations made during many years, 

 by Dr. Vogel and Dr. Lohse, acd for their publication, 

 will decide to continue his generous and useful work at a 

 future time. 



In two previous parts Dr. Vogel has given us the 

 results of his observations, and we are promised a fourth 

 part containing some further researches of his. The 

 third part, which has just appeared, contains the work 

 done by Dr. Lohse. 



The paper consists in great part of tables containing 



