Jan. 2, 1890] 



NATURE 



209 



observations of previous years, as the errors are not all typo- 

 graphical ; for instance, the wind is given during a year and 

 eight months in kilometres per hour instead of \ kilometres. 

 But, notwithstanding certain defects and peculiarities of methods, 

 the Institute has been consistent in keeping to one and the 

 same plan, from a period at which the publication of systematic 

 observations was in its infancy. 



The trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden, in accord- 

 ance with the intention of its founder, have set a good example 

 by establishing six scholarships for garden pupils, the object 

 being to provide theoretical and practical instruction for young 

 men desirous of becoming gardeners. The course of instruction 

 will extend over six years, and will include thorough training in 

 every department of work in which practical gardeners are 

 interested. 



From the latest Report of the School of Mines and Industries 

 at Bendigo, Victoria, we are glad to learn that this institution 

 continues to make steady progress. In 1883-84 it had 324 

 students. The number in 1888-89 was 799. This shows, as 

 the Council fairly claim, that the efforts of the school to supply 

 scientific and technical education to miners, engineers, assayers, 

 architects, pharmacists, artisans, art students, and others are 

 thoroughly appreciated in Australia. Some of the students 

 hail from Queensland, South Australia, and other distant parts. 



The fifth part of the second volume of the Internationales 

 Archiv fiir Ethtiographie has been issued. It maintains in 

 all respects the high level reached by previous numbers. 



Among the contributions are an article in German, by F. 



Grabowsky, on death, burial, and the funeral festival among the 

 Dajaks ; and one in English, by Prof. H. H. Giglioli, on a 

 singular obsidian scraper used at present by some of the Galla 

 tribes in southern Shoa. 



At a meeting of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 

 New Zealani, on October 3, Mr. H. O. Forbes, Director of the 

 Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, described an extinct species 

 of swan from osteological remains which he had discovered while 

 excavating a cave recently exposed at Sumner, on the estuary of 

 the Heathcote and Avon Rivers, a few miles distant from Christ- 

 church. The cave had been entirely concealed by the falling in 

 of the basaltic rock overhanging the entrance. This grr;at heap 

 of debris had been there since the arrival of the first settlers at 

 Canterbury, and had been quarried from for twenty-five years for 

 the making of roads, without any trace of a cave being exposed 

 till about the beginning of September. When the cave was first 

 entered, there were found on the surface a few Moa bones, and 

 various Maori implements — a well-made paddle, an ornamental 

 baler, numerous greenstone adzes, obsidian flake scrapers, 

 shell-openers, and ornaments carefully polished. In some of the 

 latter, small holes for suspending them round the neck were 

 drilled in the most beautiful manner. It isdifificult to conjecture 

 how the Maoris had accomplished this when European workers 

 in greenstone find it a laborious process even with, and im- 

 possible without, a diamond drill. Besides these greenstone 

 objects, there was a great quantity of fishing paraphernalia — 

 stone suckers, fish-hooks of all sizes made out of Moa and other 

 bones — all carefully and elaborately fashioned. Some of the 

 larger fish-hooks were carved out of bones which must have 

 belonged to a Dinornis of great size. On the floor of the cave 

 was also found a well-carved representation in wood of a dog, 

 which seems to have formed the terminating ornament of a 

 paddle-handle — evidence that the Maoris were well acquainted 

 with this animal. The femur of the Maori rat and a portion of 

 the skin covered with dense reddish fur in perfect preservation 

 were also obtained. A quantity of human hair was scattered 

 about, both on the floor and in the kitchen midden in front of 

 the cave. This midden was composed chiefly of marine shells 



of many kinds, and of the remains of fires and feasts. One 

 large lock of long hair — evidently a woman's — was discovered in 

 the midden tied up with great care at both ends with plaited 

 flax, and incased in a plaited flax pocket. Some very fine bone 

 needles also were come upon, but little thicker than steel 

 needles, with an eye exquisitely drilled. There were, besides 

 Moa bones, those of many other species of birds, of dogs, 

 of fish, of seals (both fur and hair), and sea elephants 

 — all of which had been used for food, but no human 

 bones. Of the ornithic remains, some apparently belong to 

 species now extinct in New Zealand, and not yet described. 

 The bones and egg-shells of the Moa show incontestably 

 that the Maori and it were contemporaneous. The geological 

 evidence would seem to indicate that this cave was of consider- 

 able antiquity, and was inhabited at intervals for a long period 

 of time. Several fire-places occur interstratified with bands of 

 silt, as if the cave had been inhabited and then flooded many 

 times. Definite conclusions on the geological evidence have 

 not yet been arrived at. The swan bones discovered consist of 

 three complete coracoids, the proximal and distal portions of 

 the humerus sufficient to complete the whole bone. They differ 

 very little from those of the Clicnopis atrata of Australia, except 

 in their greater size. The new species has been named Chenopis 

 stimnerensis. It is smaller, however, than a species of swan 

 discovered — as a complete skeleton — many years ago in Otago, 

 some 18 feet below the surface of the ground, when the foundation 

 for a house was being dug in Dunedin. This Sumner cave has 

 been closed since before the introduction of the Clicnopis atrata 

 into New Zealand. The extension, therefore, of the Cygnidse to 

 New Zealand is a very interesting fact in ornithology. A 

 similar cave, but far distant from the present one, was excavated 

 and examined by Sir Julius von Haast (Mr. Forbes's predecessor) 

 many years ago. Of the bones found in it, the Moa remains 

 were fully described by their discoverer, but none belong- 

 ing to the smaller birds have as yet been described. These 

 with the osteological collections disinterred from the Glenmark 

 and Hamilton swamps, and from the Earnscleugh Cave, will 

 form the subject of a future paper by Mr. Forbes before the 

 Institute. 



In a previous paper before the Philosophical Institute of 

 Canterbury, Mr. Forbes pointed out that the bone figured by 

 Prof. Owen on plate ciii. of his " Extinct Birds of New Zealand " 

 as the coracoid of the Cneiniornis, belongs with little doubt to 

 Aptornis. The coracoid of Cneiniornis, of which there are 

 numerous specimens in the Christchurch and Otago Museums, is 

 of the typical anserine form, and closely resembles that of 

 Cercopsis. The coraco-clavicular angle in Aptornis approached 

 130°. 



The following curious instance of inheritance of an acquired 

 mental peculiarity is given by Pastor Handtmann, of Seedorf by 

 Lenzen on the Elbe, in the Korrespondenzblatt of the German 

 Anthropological Society. When acting as substitute for a few 

 months in 1868, in the parish of Groben, in Brandenburg, he 

 there met a farmer named Lowendorf, who, when he signed his 

 name officially in connection with the school, always wrote his 

 Christian name "Austug" instead of "August." Some years 

 later, the writer was inspecting this school, and heard a little 

 girl read " Leneb " for "Leben," "Naled" for " Nadel," and 

 so on. On inquiry, he found her name was Eiiwendorf, and 

 she was a daughter of this farmer. The father (then dead) had 

 in talk with his neighbours occasioned much amusement by the 

 peculiar habit, which appeared to be the result of a fall from the 

 upper story of a barn, some time before the birth of this girl. 

 She wrote, as well as spoke, in the peculiar way referred to. 



Pkok. Leumann is of opinion {Pliil. Stni/iti/) that the influence 

 of blood circulation and breathing, on mind-life, has been too little 



