LITERARY NOTICES. 



8si 



and that the human race and human develop- 

 ment started from the interior of the dark 

 continent, and went out down the Nile and 

 through Egypt, confessedly the oldest civil- 

 ized nation, to all the quarters of the earth. 

 As a corollary to this, all customs, all 

 myths, all civilization, all speech, and all re- 

 ligion, had their origin in Egypt, and are 

 traceable directly back there. Another corol- 

 lary is that all the sociological science and 

 comparative philology that have been built 

 up on the theory of a primitive Aryan race 

 and civilization and language are idle specu- 

 lations, except as these Aryan institutions 

 are admitted to be children of the Egyptians. 

 The Christian religion also sufifers at Mr. 

 Massey's hands ; for this work, to use his 

 own language, " culminates in tracing the 

 transformation of astronomical mythology 

 into the system of equinoctial Christology 

 called Christianity, and demonstrating the 

 non-historic nature of the canonical gospels 

 by means of the original myths in which 

 the Messianic mystery, the Virgin mother- 

 hood, the incarnation and birth, the miracu- 

 lous life and character, the crucifixion and 

 resurrection of the Saviour Son, who was 

 the Word of all ages, were altogether alle- 

 gorical." Having devoted a dozen years ex- 

 clusively to his work, Mr. Massey has been 

 able to bring to his aid a vast amount of 

 learning, and has used it with considerable 

 ingenuity. His text abounds with interest- 

 ing facts and citations not to be found 

 elsewhere in a whole library, and with skill- 

 ful applications. If his conclusions do not 

 carry conviction, it is not for lack of bravery 

 and address on the part of their champion. 



On the Contents of a Bose-Cate in the 

 Island op Anquilla (West Indies). 

 By Edward D. Cope. Washington : 

 Smithsonian Institution. Pp. 80, with 

 Five Plates. 



Attention was first called to the inter- 

 esting bone-deposit described in this memoir 

 in 1868, when a load of the cave-earth was 

 brought to Philadelphia as a fertMizing ma- 

 terial, and the bones were examined by 

 Professor Cope. Together with the bones 

 was found a chisel of human manufacture, 

 made from a shell. The quantity of ani- 

 mal remains in the deposit and their dimen- 

 sions point to the former existence of a 

 more extensive and larger fauna than the 



island as it now stands could have supported. 

 This fact is regarded as confirmatory of the 

 hypothesis that the Antilles were once con- 

 nected by ranges which have been sub- 

 merged since Pliocene times. In the light 

 of these facts. Professor Cope claims that 

 the study is of importance, because it is the 

 first investigation of the life of the cave age 

 in the West Indies ; because it gives the 

 first reliable indication of the period of the 

 submergence by which the islands were 

 separated ; because it furnishes the first 

 evidence as to the antiquity of man there ; 

 and because it describes some peculiar forms 

 of life not previously known. 



Cruise op the Revenue Steamer Corwin 

 IN Alaska and the Northwest Arctic 

 Ocean, in 1881. Notes and Memoranda. 

 Washington : Government Printing-Of- 

 ficc. Pp. 120. 



The notes include a very interesting 

 paper by Dr. Irving C. Rosse, on the medi- 

 cal features of the expedition, with anthro- 

 pological memoranda respecting the Esqui- 

 maux, and the effects of the Arctic climate 

 on the members of the expedition and the 

 natives ; botanical observations, by Mr. John 

 Muir ; description of the birds of Behring 

 Sea and the Arctic Ocean, by E. W. Nel- 

 son ; and a list of fishes, by Tarleton U. 

 Bean. The text is illustrated with heliotype 

 and colored lithogi-aphic plates. 



Report on the Otster-Beds op the James 

 River, Virginia, and of Tangier and 

 PocoMOKE Sounds, Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia. 1881. By Francis Winslow, 

 U. S. N. Washington: Government 

 Printing-office. Pp. 87, with Plates. 



This monograph is one of the scries of 

 " Methods and Results " of the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey. In it, Captain 

 Winslow presents the results of an inves- 

 tigation which he was ordered in 1878 to 

 make with the schooner Palinurus, and 

 which should include the determination of 

 the positions and areas of the oyster-beds 

 and the depth of water over them, at both 

 high and low water; the determination of 

 the character of the beds, whether natural 

 or artificial, and how the oysters were dis- 

 tributed ; the determination of the tempera- 

 tures of the surface and bottom water, and 

 the velocity of currents; the preservation 

 of specimens of oysters ; the determinatioa 



