25 



NATURE 



[March 2, 1916 



years, the author submits certain geological aspects of 

 the question which he thinks may assist in lorming 

 a conclusion as to the precise nature of the con- 

 glomerates and the origin of the gold associated with 

 them. After reviewing the position in the light of 

 these recent investigations, which have, he claims, 

 seriously disturbed the even balance of previously 

 adduced evidence favouring opposing theories, the 

 author considers that the evidence in favour of re- 

 garding the conglomerates as "'fossil placers" is 

 convincing and is increasing continually with the 

 extension of opportunities for collecting information. 

 The importance of establishing such a theory as fact 

 can scarcely be over-estimated from its bearing upon 

 the future of the Rand goldfiields, which have now for 

 some years had a yearly output to the value of approxi- 

 mately 40,000,000/. sterling. — H. E. Nicholls : A 

 pioneer bucket dredge in northern Nigeria. The 

 chief interest in this account of the installation of the 

 first bucket dredge in northern Nigeria relates to the 

 fact that the dredge in question was, to the author's 

 knowledge, the first to be operated by internal-com- 

 bustion engines of the semi-Diesel type. The choice 

 of this type of motor was enforced by the local absence 

 of firewood and the then existing prohibitive cost of 

 coal, which seemed to render the use of steam power 

 quite out of the question. The paper gives a full 

 description of the dredge and its engine, and there are 

 also details of the costs of operating and other par- 

 ticulars which should be useful to engineers con- 

 fronted with similar problems. — A. S. Wheler : Anti- 

 mony production in Hunan Province, South China. 

 In view of the importance of this metal at the present 

 juncture, and the fact that China is the world's largest 

 producer — Hunan being, moreover, the chief source 

 of the Chinese supply, this paper makes a timely 

 appearance. It would seem that, as in most Chinese 

 mining, the processes adopted are of a crude and some- 

 times even primitive nature, but despite this the pro- 

 duction is of great economic value, and of the output 

 it is computed that at least 90 per cent, (about 25,000 

 tons in the year 19 14) is exported to other countries. 



Man'chester. 

 Literary. and Philosophical Society, Februarv 8. — Prof. 

 S. J. Hickson, president, in the chair. — ProL G. Elliot 

 Smith : New phases of the controversies concerning 

 the Piltdown skull. Prof. Elliot Smith considered 

 the different views that had been recently expressed ; 

 (i) that the canine belonged to the upjier and not the 

 lower jaw; (2) that the mandible was not human, 

 but that of a hitherto unknown species of chimpanzee, 

 which by some unexplained means made its way into 

 England in the Pleistocene period ; (3) that the features 

 differentiating this mandible from that of modern man 

 had been unduly exaggerated ; (4) that the canine tooth 

 could not have belonged to the same individual as the 

 skull and the jaw because it differed from them in age, 

 according to one authority being definitely older, and 

 to another distinctly younger, than the other frag- 

 ments. These widely divergent views tend to 

 neutralise one another. In considering the possibility 

 that inore than one hitherto unknown ape-like man 

 or man-like ape expired In Britain side by side in the 

 Pleistocene period, and left complementary' parts, the 

 one of the other, the element of improbability is so 

 enormous as not to be set aside except for the most 

 definite and positive anatomical reasons. The evidence 

 submitted in support of each item of the arguments 

 for the diss'ociation of the fragments was examined, 

 and it was maintained that none of it was sufficiently 

 strong to bear the enormous weight of improbability 

 which these hypotheses imposed upon it. The author 

 directed special attention to the implied Inference that 



NO. 2418, VOL. 97] 



the cranium itself was not sufficiently simian to be 

 associated with the jaw ; and emphasised the fact that 

 the skull itself revealed certain features of a more 

 primitive nature than any other known representative 

 of the human family. — W. J. Perry : The geographical 

 distribution of terraced cultivation and irrigation. 

 Attention was directed to the stupendous efforts made 

 by various populations in the past, whereby whole 

 mountain-sides were laboriously built up into series 

 of great steps, which in many cases were watered by 

 gigantic irrigation works, so that Jthousands of acres 

 of what otherwise would have been sterile land wei'e 

 made to produce crops and maintain large popula- 

 tions. Such methods were (and in some instances 

 still are) used in Great Britain and Ireland, Spain, 

 Italy, Switzerland, and South Germany, many of the 

 Mediterranean islands, Phoenicia, Mauretania, Canary 

 Islands and Nigeria, Darfur, East Africa, British 

 Central Africa, Rhodesia, Madagascar, Southern and 

 Central Arabia, India, Ceylon, Burma, Assam, 

 Western China, Sumatra, Nias, Java, Madura, Bali, 

 Lombok, Sumbaw'a, Luzon, Formosa and Japan, New 

 Guinea, Melanesia, Pelew and Caroline Islands, Mar- 

 quesas Islands, Hawaii, Lesser Paumotus, Easter 

 Island, Peru, Mexico, Honduras, New Mexico, 

 Western Texas, Arizona, East California, and Haiti. 

 These methods, applied in the same way in this pecu- 

 liar geographical distribution, and irrespective of 

 whether such highly laborious measures were necessary 

 or not, afford the most positive tokens of the migration 

 of primitive culture along the same routes and prob- 

 ably at the same time as the stone-using, miqe-work- 

 ing peoples first intruded into the same localised spots 

 on the surface of the globe. — J. W. Jackson : The geo- 

 graphical distribution of the shell-purple industry. One 

 of the most curious uses of shellfish is that of their 

 employment for the production of a purple dye, known 

 to the ancients as "Tyrian purple." The invention of 

 this dye has usually been accredited to the Phoenicians, 

 but Bosanquet has recently shown that it was known 

 to the Minoans of Crete in 1600 b.c. The Phoenicians, 

 however, appear to have been instrumental in spread- 

 ing the knowledge of the art far and wide ; the search 

 for purple-shells was probably one of the motives 

 which led these people to explore areas further afield 

 than their own immediate surroundings. Throughout 

 the Mediterranean, stations for the manufacture of 

 purple were established by these ancient mariners, 

 and evidence is also available of the early practice of 

 the art on the coast of N.W. Africa and in the British 

 Isles (Cornwall and west of Ireland). Eastward of 

 the Mediterranean the knowledge of the art seems to 

 have spread through the Malay region, China, and 

 Japan, as far as Mexico and Central America. In the 

 latter region it was gertainly practised in pre-Columbian 

 times, and still survives among the Indians. — J. W. 

 Jaclison : Shell-trumpets and their distribution in the 

 Old and New World. The employment of shells as 

 horns and trumpets is of very ancient origin. The 

 sites of the past and present uses of these trumpets 

 form a continuous chain from the Mediterranean re- 

 gion, through India and the Pacific Islands to the 

 American continent. As in the case of shell-purple, 

 Crete figures very prominently in the early use of the 

 conch-shell trumpet, it having been associated with 

 Minoan religious worship. From Crete the cult 

 spread, doubtless through Phoenician influence, to 

 numerous places in the Mediterranean, to India, Tibet, 

 China, and Japan, through Indonesia and the Pacific 

 Islands, to the central parts of America. In the 

 Mediterranean, Triton trumpets have been found in 

 Ligurian caves, said to be of Neolithic age. , In India 

 the chank-trumpet is used in connection with Hindu 

 temple worship and special sanctity is associated with 



