146 



NA TURE 



\August 9, 1888 



love the hills, fear the abodes of men, and run as strongly 

 as wild beasts. The natives call them autumn foxes. 

 But, still, they are not invariably to be found." Although 

 it is not yet known where the Lolo came from, Mr. Bourne 

 gives a notion of their present habitat. In the great bend 

 of the Yangtsze, in 103° E. longitude, between that river 

 and the Anning, the Lolo are at home ; there they live 

 in independence of China, under their own tribal chiefs 

 and aristocracy. Thence they extend in a scattered 

 manner as far north as Wen-chuan, in latitude 31 15' N., 

 and longitude 103 30' E. To the west they extend to 

 the Meikong ; to the south they are found occupying 

 here and there the higher ground, until the plateau breaks 

 into the plain, and they extend eastward to Kweiyang. 

 They seem to be more numerous as Taliang Shan, their 

 present home, is approached, and they form much the 

 largest part of the population of North-Eastern Yunnan 

 and North-Western Kweichow. Mr. Bourne adds about 

 thirty names by which different tribes of Lolo are known 

 to the Chinese. 



The Shans are not found north-east of the city of Yun- 

 nan, but they inhabit all the lower levels along the south 

 Yunnan border ; and from the city of Kwang-nan along 

 Mr. Bourne's route to the frontier of Kweichow province, 

 they form almost the whole population. They must 

 have been masters of the Kwangsi province before the 

 Chinese, as some of the Chinese official buildings in 

 the province are said to have been erected on the sites of 

 Shan palaces. It would be interesting, says Mr. Bourne, 

 to know how the Shans reached Kwangsi, whether 

 through Tonquin or across the Yunnan plateau. The 

 Shans in Southern Kweichow are undoubtedly immi- 

 grants from Kwangsi, and did not cross the plateau. The 

 Shan language is softer than Chinese or Lolo, with fewer 

 gutturals and aspirates, and appears easy to learn. The 

 numerals show a curious resemblance in sound to the 

 Cantonese. 



The Miao-tzse apparently are divided into a number of 

 tribes speaking dialects of one language which is of the 

 Chinese sort. They occupy at present Eastern Kwei- 

 chow and Western Hunan, being very numerous in the 

 south-east of the former province. They are known to 

 the Chinese by a multitude of names, but always with the 

 prefix Miao. 



So far the appendix ; but scattered throughout Mr. 

 Bourne's elaborate report of his journey there are 

 numerous interesting references to these non- Chinese 

 races. Near Maling, in Southern Yunnan, on a tributary 

 of the Yangtsze, he came on a sandstone bluff containing 

 about twenty Mantzu caves. Most of the entrances, 3 to 

 4 feet square, are cut in the vertical cliff some 10 feet 

 above the ground, so that they cannot be reached without 

 a ladder. The face of the cliff is adorned in 6ne or two 

 cases by sculptures in relief, the most striking being a 

 round human face. The valley was, no doubt, formerly 

 the head-quarters of a Mantzu tribe, for some miles lower 

 down the site of the castle of a chief is pointed out. The 

 sculptured blocks that lie about bear witness to a con- 

 siderable advance in civilization. The Lolos are described 

 as having larger and more irregular features than the 

 average Chinese ; the colour of the skin seems much the 

 same, but the eyes were deeper sunk. They are divided 

 into three tribes, known as the black, white, and dry 

 Lolos — a meaningless distinction, but corresponding 

 apparently to a real tribal division. They believe in a 

 future state of retribution, burn the dead, worship their 

 ancestors with the sacrifice of an ox, and have no idols. 

 Four pieces of brown paper were said to represent the 

 potentialities of the other world, and three sticks of 

 bamboo their ancestors. A special Lolo vocabulary, with 

 the written characters, procured from a. per ma, or tribal 

 sorcerer, in Ssu-mao, is carefully reproduced. This 

 sorcerer was able to read his prayer-book, but not to 

 explain what it meant. In his own opinion this was not 



important, as the ritual had been arranged between his 

 ancestors and the gods, who knew very well what was 

 meant so long as he read the right section and gave the 

 characters their proper sound. 



The Report it should be added contains numerous 

 and comprehensive tables of meteorological observations 

 and levels, although the rate of travelling prevented 

 anything like a running survey being made. 



THE BATH MEETING OF THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIA TION. 



'"PHIS will be the fifty-eighth meeting of the British 

 -*- Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 Twenty-four years ago — in 1864 — the Association met at 

 Bath under the presidency of the late Sir Charles Lyell. 

 So many other names are now missing, that the retro- 

 spect is the reverse of cheering. Sir Roderick Murchison, 

 Admiral Fitzroy, Dr. Whewell, Sir John F. W. Herschel, 

 Sir David Brewster, Dr. William Farr, Prof. Fawcett, 

 Dr. Livingstone, Capt. Maury, and Mr. Scott Russell, are 

 only a very few of the numerous names of note that spring 

 to the memory in connection with the last Bath meeting. 



But if this is the retrospect, the prospect is in every- 

 way most satisfactory. Under the genial presidency of 

 Sir Frederick Bramwell, with the aid of very efficient 

 local officers, a thoroughly successful meeting may fairly 

 be looked for. Bath has the advantage of a good position 

 for railway facilities. It is not more than i\ hours from 

 London, 2 from Exeter, \\ from Cardiff, 1^ from Birming- 

 ham, and 5^ from Manchester. The endeavours of the 

 Local Executive Committee to obtain the issue of cheap 

 tickets, as usual, have been crowned with success. As 

 Bath — strangely enough — does not possess a Public Hall, 

 a temporary building, to serve as reception-room and 

 offices, is in course of erection, at a cost of some £7°°- 

 The President's address, the evening discourses, and Sir 

 John Lubbock's lecture to working men will be given in 

 the Drill Hall. 



It is unnecessary to say anything as to the fitness of 

 Sir Frederick Bramwell for the office of President. The 

 following are the Presidents of the Sections: — Mathe- 

 matics and Physics, Prof. Fitzgerald ; Chemistry, Prof. 

 Tilden ; Geology, Prof. Boyd Dawkins ; Biology, Mr. 

 Thiselton Dyer ; Geography, Sir Charles Wilson ; Stat- 

 istics, Lord Bramwell ; Mechanics, Mr. Preece ; Anthro- 

 pology, General Pitt-Rivers. 



Bath itself is so well known as to need very few words. 

 The old Roman Bath and its adjuncts, recently uncovered, 

 with other remains, will of course excite general interest. 

 Attention will also be given to the new buildings erected 

 by the Corporation to meet the increasing demand for the 

 Bath waters. On every side the city is surrounded by 

 objects that will interest the geologist, the archaeologist, 

 and the lover of the picturesque. Provisional arrange- 

 ments have been made for a set of excursions— half- 

 day, on Thursday, September 6, and whole day on 

 Saturday, September 8— to Stantonbury, Stanton Drew, 

 Maes Knoll ; Dyrham, Sodbury Camp, Bannerdown ; 

 Stourton, Pen Pits, Whitesheet, Longleat ; Frome, 

 Wells, Glastonbury, Cheddar, Chepstow, Tintern, Box 

 Quarries, Cirencester, Severn Tunnel, Tytherington, 

 Thornbury, Berkeley, Ebbor Gorge, Wookey, and 

 elsewhere. 



PROF. H. CAR FILL LEWIS. 



THE loss to the geological world by the death of Prof. 

 Henry Carvill Lewis at the early age of thirty-four, and 

 in the midst of his work, is greater than they may realize, as 

 the more important of his results acquired during the last 

 three years have not been fully published. When, in 

 1882, he began to study the glacial phenomena of 



