286 RELIQUIAE AQUITANICLE. 



collections," but that not being at all a good geologist, and not having been 

 " trained to investigation, or to habits of precise statement " (p. 345), and not 

 being wholly trustworthy, Dr. Koch's supposed charring of the body and calcining 

 of the bones, his presumed weapons of offence, and statements as to posture and 

 condition cannot be implicitly believed, and his " evidence of the contemporaneity 

 of Man and the Mastodon " is therefore "very doubtful. It is to be hoped " (Prof. 

 Dana proceeds to say) " that the Geologists of the Missouri Geological Survey now 

 in progress will succeed in settling the question positively. The contemporaneity 

 claimed will probably be shown to be true for North America by future disco- 

 veries, if not already so established ; for Man existed in Europe long before the 

 extinction of the American Mastodon " (p. 346). 



See also page 157, where Mr. ALEX. C. ANDERSON, referring to the contem- 

 poraneity of Man and the Mastodon, although not doubting its probability, points 

 out that great care is always required in these investigations to avoid fallacious 

 inferences ; and he explains how in one instance the remains of a Mastodon, 

 exposed through the action of the wind, appeared in juxtaposition with numerous 

 human skeletons, which are constantly becoming in like manner exposed, and 

 again re-covered by the shifting sands. In a letter, dated November 20, 1868, 

 and alluding to these bones in the great sandy flats of the Columbia River, 

 Mr. Anderson had already remarked : 



" The appearances of antiquity in both were not obviously different ; and an uninformed or hasty observer 

 might have jumped to a very erroneous conclusion. It happened, however, that the history of the human 

 remains was well known to me and others of the older frequenters of the North-west as being, notwith- 

 standing their antiquated appearance, of very modern date ; and thus a very plausible hypothesis was 

 spoilt. These remarks, however, are not intended as derogatory from the accuracy of the conclusions that 

 may have been arrived at in the other case referred to, but solely to show that a fortuitous coincidence of 

 widely different circumstances might in some cases mislead the observer very gravely." 



Page 70 &c. Buried Weapons 8fc., and Local Abundance of Stone Implements. 

 Dr. R. BROWN, F.L.S. &c. offered the following remarks in a Letter dated Septem- 

 ber 28, 1868 : 



"The reason for Savages, in all ages, burying implements with the dead is, I think, a little misunderstood, 

 and has, to a great extent, got into the domain of romance. I once asked an Indian Medicine-man in 

 Klamath County, Southern Oregon, the reason why they burnt all the property of a deceased person was 

 it to help him on his way to their after-land? was that the reason why even slaves and horses were 

 destroyed ? He assured me that the true reason was, that, as Indians think it very unlucky to talk about 

 the dead (a universal superstition), his property was destroyed so that there might be no temptation for 

 children or careless people to mention his name, by the recollection of the dead person being continually 

 called before them by the sight of his former property. I give this account for what it is worth. The 

 natives further north have the same superstition about the dead ; but the reason of their putting property 



