March 21, 1878] 



NATURE 



409 



The April part will contain a long paper, with map, by 

 Prof. Hertzberg, on the Ethnology of the Balkan Peninsula 

 in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and the con- 

 clusion of the paper on Prof. Nordenskjold's proposed 

 expedition from Norway to Behring's Straits. There is 

 also the itinerary (with map) of a journey between Ozaki, 

 Kioto, Nara, and Ominesanjo, in Nippon, Japan, by Dr. 

 Knipping. 



American Geographical Society, — In the Bulletin 

 of the Society, No. 5 (1876-7) will be found a pretty full 

 account of the work of the American Palestine Explora- 

 tion Society, by Dr. Merrell, and a paper on a trip up the 

 Magdalena, and among the Andes, by Mr. J. A. Bennett, 

 U.S. Consul at Bagota. At the meeting of the society on 

 February 27, the president, Chief-Justice Daly, gave his 

 annual address, summing up in an interesting and com- 

 plete manner the geographical work of the past year. 



Berlin Geographical Society.— The fiftieth anni- 

 versary of the foundation of this Society will be celebrated 

 in the Kaisersaal of the Flora. The Crown Prince of 

 Germany, several ministers, and numerous foreign 

 guests, are expected to be present at the festival, which 

 will begin on April 31. The last three numbers for 1877 

 of the Verhandhmgcn of this Society contain some 

 papers which may interest geographers and ethnologists. 

 Among these (in No. 8) are a paper by Prof. Virchow on 

 " The Anthropology of America," and in the same number 

 a paper on "The Hygiene of the Tropics," by Herr 

 Falkenstein ; in No. 10 a paper by Dr. Hildebrandt on 

 his travels in East Africa, in his attempt to reach Mounts 

 Kenia and Kilima-Njaro, to which we have already 

 referred. 



Sumatra.— The Dutch Geographical Society has 

 recently received important news from the Expedition in 

 Sumatra. MM. van Hasselt and Veth report that in the 

 course of their exploration of the southern highlands of 

 Padang, they ascended the Peak of Indrapura, the 

 highest mountain in Sumatra. From the summit of this 

 volcano they had an extensive view over the land and 

 lakes of Korintji. The travellers also report that of late 

 they had met with less enmity on the part of the inde- 

 pendent chiefs than at the outset of their expedition. 



NOTES 

 During the field operations of one of the parties connected 

 with the U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories, in charge of 

 Prof. F. V. Hayden, portions of south-western Colorado, north- 

 western New Mexico, and north-eastern Arizona, were traversed, 

 embracing that broken-up country occupied in remote times by 

 a race of people who were known as the cliff-dwellers. This 

 subject is well known to readers in general, but we must recur to 

 it^again so as to be able to reach the importance of the discovery 

 to he described. In one of the canons, known as the Chaco, 

 Mr. H, W. Jackson made detailed investigations and measure- 

 ments of the immense ruined buildings. In one of the arroyas 

 or dry water-courses, the sectional view of the alluvial deposit 

 was exposed to a depth of about sixteen feet. Fourteen feet 

 beneath the surface, a layer of pottery and debris came to view. 

 This may not seem strange, as, in a comparatively narrow valley, 

 dirt and gravel to the depth of fourteen feet might be deposited 

 in a short term of years. But ten feet above this layer the 

 foundation walls of ancient buildings were visible, built upon 

 another layer of gravel and sand. These were in time covered 

 with the alluvium upon which now stand the famous ruins, of 

 which no history is extant, and of the builders of which no history 

 will ever be known. How many ages have passed since the 

 lower or first bed was the surface upon which moved the nume- 

 rous hordes, of which all evidence at present is hidden behind 

 the veil of the dark past ? Now, a skull comes to view upon 

 the layer of pottery, which is beneath two eras of occupation 



and semi-civilisation. This skull, in its contour, is unique. Its 

 closest relations are the ancient Mexicans, Peruvians, Caribs, and 

 Natchez. There is an extraordinary flattening of the upper 

 posterior portion of the head (posterior parietal), which is evident 

 in those figured in Morton's Crania Americana. The contents of 

 the skull as found, consists of sand, which is now as hard as 

 ordinary agglutinated sandstone, and has, in nearly all portions, 

 the appearance of liminite. The skull will be described and 

 figured by Dr. W. J. Hoffmann, of the U.S. Survey, and it affords 

 another strong link in the chain of facts and hypotheses of the 

 cliff-dwellers and the ancient Mexicans being more nearly related 

 than is generally admitted or supposed. 



Mr. Park Harrison telegraphs to us from Worthing that 

 he has just (yesterday) exhumed, at Cissbury, a contracted skele- 

 ton, sixteen feet deep, lying in the centre of the pit, over which 

 the cist was found last autumn. The work will be continued 

 on Saturday and next week. 



A SCRUTINY took place on the i8th instant at the Academy 

 of Sciences for the nomination of a successor to M. Leverrier 

 as member of the section of astronomy. The successful candi- 

 date v/as M. Tisserand, the Director of Toulouse Observatory, 

 who took thirty- two votes out of fifty- five, against M. Wolf. 

 M. Tisserand was the second astronomer of the Japan Mission 

 for the Transit of Venus, which was led by M. Janssen. 



As we have already stated, a subscription list has been opened 

 in France for the foundation of a memorial to Claude Bernard. 

 A small sub-committee has been formed to obtain subscriptions 

 in this country, consisting of Sir James Paget, Dr. J. Burdon 

 Sanderson, Prof Humphry, Dr. Michael Foster, Mr. Ernest 

 Hart, Mr. Romanes, and Prof Gerald Yeo, King's College, 

 to the latter of whom, as ho norary secretary of the Physiological 

 Society, subscriptions may be sent. 



Porter and Coaxes of Philadelphia are about to bring out 

 a new and cheap edition of Wilson and Bonaparte's " American 

 Ornithology," three volumes in one, together with 103 new 

 plates. 



The report of Major Feilden, the naturahst of the Arctic 

 Expedition, is now nearly completed, and will shortly make its 

 appearance as a Parliamentary Paper, together with some inter- 

 esting additional remarks by Sir George Nares. 



General de Nansouty published in the beginning of March 

 a letter stating that a sum of 20,000 francs was required to com- 

 plete the Pic-du-Midi Observatory, of which he is director. 

 Three days after the publication of his letter in the XlXme 

 Siicle, an inhabitant of Calais sent him 5,000 francs, and five 

 days later he was presented with a sum of 15,000 francs by M. 

 Bischofsheim, the eminent Parisian banker, whose generosities to 

 science we have so often to record. 



Brownea grandiceps is producing its fine Rhododendron-]iV.Q 

 heads of flowers in No. I house at Kew. 



King Humbert of Italy has granted four annual prizes of 

 5,000 lire each (about 190/.) for the best productions in art, 

 science, and literature. The Academia dei Lincei, at Rome, is 

 charged with the annual award and distribution of these prizes. 



A competitive trial of German and Swiss chronometers took 

 place recently at the Deutsche Seewarte at Hamburg, by order 

 of the German .Admiralty. The best instrument was furnished 

 by Herr Brocking, and its performance is said to be superior 

 to that of any chronometer examined at Greenwich during the 

 last three years. 



Major-General Sir Henry Rawlinson, K.C.B., F.R.S., 

 and Sir John Lubbock, M.P., F.R.S., have been appointed 

 trustees of the British Museum in the place of the late Right Hon. 

 Sir David Dundas and the late Sir William Stirling Maxwell. 



