October 17, 1895J 



NATURE 



607 



ils (lifferem branches in (lerniany. After a man has passed his 

 eNaminations he may often have to wail for years and years 

 liefore he Rets an appointment ; but the love of the woods, the 

 poetry which time has woven around the sohlary forslliaiis 

 amidst the trees and animals of the woods is so great they do 

 not mind waitinj; a long time. In conclusion, Haron Herman 

 >ai(l he was in America to see what trees coidd be transplanted 

 with success to ( Germany. 



.Vftcr a paper on the present condition of the forests of 

 America, the following resolutions were adopted, among 

 others : — 



" That the American I'orestry Association join with the 

 New York Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade 

 in hearty advocacy of the establishment of a forestry com- 

 inissiott of three members to make a thorough investigation of 

 the public forest lands, and to make recommendations concern- 

 ing iheir disposition and treatment, and the executive committee 

 is hereby directed to represent the Association in support of such 

 legislation." 



" That the American Forestry Association recognising that a 

 practical advance in ratiimal forestry methods requires the ser- 

 ^■ices of men trained in forestry practice, endorse the legislation 

 jiroposeil in the last cimgress, and expresses the hope that the 

 same will i)e enacted during the-c<jming congress." 



" That the knowledge and extent and conditions of our forest 

 resources is a necessary basis for intelligent forest legislation, and 

 that therefore the American Forestry -Association reconimends the 

 co.ojieration of \ariuus gt)verimient dejiartuients as far as prac- 

 ticable ill ascertaining their areas and conditions, and especially 

 recommends that both a topographical and forcstal survey of the 

 national forest reservations be instituted." 



.Sixteen jiapers were read before the American Mathematical 

 Society, and two tojiics were discussed, viz. (i) a general sub- 

 ject catahjgue or index of mathematical literature, and (2) the 

 mathematical curricula of colleges and science schools. With 

 reference to the former subject, it was resolved that the Council 

 of the .Society consider the desirability of offering their co- 

 operation to the Mathematical Society of France in the work of 

 •cla.ssifying and indexing mathematical literature. 



The American Chemical Society was presided over by Prof. 

 K. F. Smith : and among the subjects of papers read before it 

 were : an electrical process for the i)roduction of white lead ; the 

 heating effects of coal ; speed of oxidation of chloric acid ; re- 

 actit)n between copper and concentrated sulphuric acid ; use of 

 aluminium for condensers in the distillation of alcohol, ether, 

 chloroform, benzine and similar litjuids. Prof. Norton, who 

 read the last-named paper, stated that the erjuipmenl of the 

 ■chemical laboratory of the University of Cincinnati includes 

 aluminium supports, rings, clamps, burners, water-baths, air- 

 baths, hot water funnels, iVc, in all of which connections the 

 lightness, conductivity, and freedom from rust render the metal 

 superior to iron or bronze. 



The Botanical .Society of America, which was organised in 

 Brooklyn last year, held its first annual meeting on .\ngust 27 

 and 28. .Mr. William Trelease presided. The officers elected for 

 the ensuing year are : President, C. E. Bessey ; vice-president, 

 W. P. Wilson ; secretary, Charles R. Bainer ; treasurer, Arthur 

 llollick. 



Prof. Cr. F. Swain opened the proceedings of the Society 

 for the Promotion of Engineering Education with an address 

 ■on the relation between mental training and practical work 

 in engineering education The papers read liefore the .Society, 

 iind the discussions to which they gave rise, will do much to in- 

 dicate what should be the scope of engineering and technical 

 schools, and the places of different subjects in an engineering 

 education. The units of force best adapted for use in the teach- 

 ing of mathematics formed the -subject of a discus.sion between j 

 the physicists and engineers. .\t the end of the meeting, Mr. ■ 

 Mansfield Merriman was elected President. 



ON RECENTLY DISCOVERED REMAINS OF 



THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS OF 



JAMAICA} 



"yilE circumstances under which the human remains now 

 exhibited to the meeting were discovered, are narrated in a 



communication by Mr. F. Cundall, .Secretary to the Jamaica 



Institute, pulilished in the yiwrHd/ of the Institute for .April 



^ Rc.id before Section H of the Hritish .-Vs^cciation at Ipswich, September 

 J2, by Sir William H. Flower, K.C.B., F..R.S. 



JAO. 1355, VOL. 52] 



' 1895, and also in a letter by Mr J. E. Duerden, Curator of the 

 Museum, in N.M t'RE of June 20. From the former I extract the 

 following description of the discovery : — " On the loih April, 

 a labourer, whilst cutting stakes on the Halljerstadt Estate (a 

 wild, rocky part of the Port Royal Mountains, about 20CO feet 

 above the sea-level, and two miles from the shore) on the estate 

 of Mr. B. S. (io.s.sett, a quarter of a mile east of the Kalorama 

 Mission Station, discovered on the hillside a human bone. This 

 led the Kev. W. W. Rumsey to make a search on the following 

 day, when he discovered a small aperture 25 inches wide, and 

 less than 2 feet high, in the face of the limestone rock, and 

 blocked l)y boulders ; on removing these, and passing through 

 which, he discovered a cavern with water-worn sides, partially 

 covered with stalactite deposits, penetrating into the rock for a 

 distance of about 20 feet, al)out 5 feel across at its widest part, 

 and not more than 2 or 3 feet high. The floor was covered with 

 a deposit about 12 inches thick, of a fine light yellowish dust, 

 but the remains were superficial." 



In addition to the human bones, to be presently described, 

 were found a considerable portion of a cedar- wood canoe, about 

 7 feet long, fragments of potter)', including t«o, nearly perfect, 

 earthenware vessels similar to those known to have been made 

 by the .\rawak Indians, an outer portion of the tnink of an 

 aybor-vili,\ probably serving at one time as a " mortar," scarcely 

 showing any sign of decay ; the perfect skulls and other parts of 

 the skeleton of a rodent (the so-called Jamaica coney, Caproiiiys 

 hra(hytiyiis) : two large marine shells (Fiisiis and Murex), the 

 .soft parts of which are still eaten by the natives, numerous land 

 shells {Hi:lix, iVc). A flint implement is also mentioned in Mr. 

 Duerden's account. 



The only portion of the contents of the cavern submitted to 

 me for examination consist of the human bones, and as they only 

 arrived in London a few days before I was leaving town, at 

 l^resent I have only been able to make a general examination of 

 them, without any detailed measurements. 



Their principal interest consists in the circumstance, proved 

 both by the conditions under which they were found, and by their 

 .iwn characteristics, that they are the remains of the race which 

 inhabited the island previous to its discovery by the Sjjaniards, 

 by whom they were in so short a time barbarously and utterly 

 exterminated. 



Whatever condition the bones were found in .as they lay in the 

 cave, they are now completely mixed up, and it is impossible to 

 put together anything like complete .skeletons, or even, except 

 in very few cases, to associate the bones of individuals ; and the 

 number of odd bones and fragments show that large portions of 

 the individuals who were buried or died in the cave are now 

 missing. Their general condition of preservation, colour, i\:c., 

 is nearly the same in all, so there is no reason to suppo.se that 

 they were not contemporaneous. None of the bones show any 

 wounds or marks of violence, but all appear to be those of persons 

 who have tiled a natural or slow death. Both sexes and almost 

 all ages are represented, from children of four or five years to very 

 old ])er.sons, the proportion of the latter, as will be seen, Ijeing 

 remarkable. 



( )f the crania, there are six complete, all those of fully adult 

 or aged jiersons, and two calvariit (without the facial portion), 

 both of children. There are also fragments of six others, giving 

 evidence of fourteen individuals. 



( )f the adult skulls three appear to be masculine and three 

 feminine in type. 



I'ive of these sh(5w evidence of artificial depression of the 

 fr(jntal region in various degrees. In two it is very marked : in 

 the others less so. In the sixth, though the frontal region is low, 

 no effects of artificial deformation are evident. Both the 

 children's skulls are very bro.ad and flat, but whether naturally 

 so, or whether this character has been exaggerated artificially 

 it is difficult to say. The mode of depression, when it occurs, 

 is similar in all, evidently ]iroduced by the flat board upon the 

 forehead — the commonest custom throughout so large a portion 

 of the ancient inhabitants of the .American continent. 



Although there is a considerable general resemblance between 

 the.se skulls, they present strong individual characters ; but their 

 whole aspect, taken together, is characteristic of the .\merican 

 tyi>e. The retreating forehead, well marked supr.aciliary ridges, 

 round broad arch of the palate, round high orbits, narrow nas;il 

 ajierture, and especially the narrow prominent nasal bones, causing 

 a high bridge to the nose during life, are very characteristic. There 

 are, however, two rather remarkable exceptions to this form of 

 nose, in which the breadth of the aperture and flatness of the 



