592 



NATURE 



[January 27, 1916 



face of it there is little evidence of adversity. The 

 volume is vcell produced, the articles are interest- 

 ing and hopeful, and the illustrations, which show 

 what photo-mechanical work in its many branches 

 is capable of, are numerous and excellent. But 

 the editorial resume of the year's progress gives 

 us a truer idea as to how matters really stand. 

 We learn that colour work is under a cloud be- 

 cause of a reduced demand, and the working of 

 it suffers much from the shortage of collodion, and 

 the difficulty of getting dyes for sensitising plates 

 and for the preparation of inks. 



In line and half-tone work there is nothing new 

 except that the demand for high-class blocks has 

 much diminished, and with it the consumption of 

 copper, while zinc is about four times the price it 

 was ; and so on to other branches of work. But 

 rotary photogravure, that is, photogravure as 

 adapted to rapid machine printing, has been taxed 

 to its utmost in the production of publications 

 illustrating the progress of the war. Even in 

 Paris, where we are apt to think that all business 

 is at a standstill, "a large amount of really ex- 

 cellent work is being done." 



It is also developing rapidly in Spain, Sweden, 

 Holland, Russia, Switzerland, Canada, and the 

 United States. Perhaps the most pleasing aspect 

 of the Annual is the evidence it contains of a con- 

 fident hope that after the war there will be a great 

 industrial revival, and that it is now being duly 

 prepared for, while even at present matters are 

 far from being as bad as one might have expected. 



Stars of ihe Southern Skies. By M. A. Orr (Mrs. 

 John Evershed). Pp. xii+92. (London: 

 Longmans, Green and Co., 1915.) Price 2s. net. 

 This little book is apparently intended as a com- 

 panion to a star atlas for the use of those who 

 have only small instrumental means for observa- 

 tion or no instruments at all. Although it refers 

 almost exclusively in detail to the more remark- 

 able objects of the southern hemisphere, the 

 author has managed to interweave a good deal of 

 interesting information which is applicable to the 

 stars in general. The book opens with a brief 

 account of the southern constellations, accom- 

 panied by a simple map, and this is followed by 

 a series of chapters dealing with such subjects 

 as "the ten brightest stars," "eclipsing stars," 

 "star clusters," and "the clouds of Magellan." 

 The descriptions of the various objects are notable 

 for the numerous references to the results ob- 

 tained by the use of the spectroscope, and in this 

 connection it would have been an improvement to 

 include either a photograph or a diagram illus- 

 trating the chief types of stellar spectra. A more 

 generous supply of illustrations would also have 

 been advantageous in other respects. Apart from 

 this, the book will doubtless be welcomed by 

 many readers, being brightly written and the facts 

 well up-to-date. Those who have learned to 

 recognise the stars, and have no special know- 

 ledge of astronomy, will find here just that little 

 additional information which will help to main- 

 tain an intelligent interest in the wonders of 

 the heavens. 



NO. 2413, VOL. 96] 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications.] 



Pre-Columbian Representations of the Elephant in 

 .a.meric?.. 



I NOTE with no little interest that the subject of 

 "the elephant in America" has been revived in a 

 communication to Nature by Prof. G. Elliot Smith. 

 The animal pictured by Prof. Smith has been inter- 

 preted by Dr. Allen and myself as a blue macaw {Ara 

 militaris) in the following passage: — "The (figure) 

 has even been interpreted as a trunk of an elephant 

 or a mastodon, but is unquestionably a macaw's beak. 

 In addition to the ornamental cross-hatching on the 

 beak, which is also seen on the glyph from the same 

 stela, there is an ornamental scroll beneath the eye, 

 which likewise is cross-hatched and surrounded by a 

 ring of subcircular marks that continue to the base of 

 the beak. The nostril is the large oval marking 

 directly in front of the eye" (Tozzer and Allen, Pea- 

 body Museum Papers, vol. iv., No. 3, p. 343, Cam- 

 bridge, 1910). 



If Prof. Smith will look on the back of the monu- 

 ment on which his figure is found (Maudslay, vol. i., 

 pi. 38), he will note at the bottom the drawing of the 

 glyph referred to in the quotation. This is unmis- 

 takably a macaw. A comparison of this with the 

 "elephant" shows that the two represent the same 

 animal. Other drawings of the same bird may be seen 

 in Maudslay, vol. i., pi. 93, glyphs 10, 25, 28, and 

 pi. 112a, glyph 12. 



The two drawings in Bancroft to which Prof. Smith 

 refers lose their significance as "elephants " when one 

 examines the photographs of the originals from which 

 these early and crude drawings were taken. The first 

 (Maudslay, vol. iv., pi. 35) is the "long-nosed god," 

 called by Schellas, "God B." The second is the pro- 

 jecting nose of a grotesque mask, one of the most 

 common features in the decoration of the buildings in 

 Yucatan. Other references to elephants which are 

 given are the " elephant mound " of Wisconsin and 

 the "elephant pipes" of Iowa. The first has been 

 found to represent, in all probability, a bear. The 

 projection called the trunk does not belong to the 

 original earthwork, but is due to an accumulation of 

 sand. The "elephant pipes " have long been accepted 

 as forgeries by all competent archaeologists who have 

 examined them. Alfred M. Tozzer. 



Peabody Museum, Harvard University. 



Cambridge, Massachusetts, December 15, 1915. 



If a note from across the sea is not so delayed as 

 to be no longer timely, may I reply to Dr. G. Elliot 

 Smith's remarkable communication on pre-Columbian 

 representations of the elephant in America in Nature 

 of November 25? The identification of the details on 

 Stela B at Copan as elephants is neither new nor 

 unanswered, and the same may be said of the exten- 

 sion of this identification to the conventional faces 

 with outward curving noses that decorate the buildings 

 of northern Yucatan. 



Of course, there is a tremendous weight of im- 

 probability to be counted against such an identification, 

 and the suggestion that these heads may represent 

 tapirs would seem more reasonable, since this animal 

 is a native of Central America, while the elephant is 

 not. But in making either guess we should have 

 failed to take account of the peculiarities of Maya art. 



