NA TURE 



[May 5, 1904 



Eskimo of North Greenland to the wild tribes of Tierra 

 del Fuego. Each lay figure group comprises from 

 four to seven individuals, selected to convey best an 

 idea of the various members of a typical family. The 

 activities of the people are illustrated, and the various 

 products of industry are, so far as possible, brought 

 together in consistent relations with the group. No 

 one who has seen these splendid groups can doubt 

 that this is the best way of illustrating the more salient 

 features of ethnology, especially when these are supple- 

 mented, as in Prof. Holmes's scheme, with models 

 made to scale of habitations and of boats, with a limited 

 selection of objects made b)- the various people, and 

 illustrations of their more important physical 

 characters, such as crania, casts from life, and pictures. 

 An exhibit such as this for all the more important 

 groups of mankind would be of extreme interest and 

 educational value, and would meet all the requirements 

 of the public. If this arrangement were carried out 

 the great bulk of ethnological material, which takes 

 up so much space in large museums, need not be ex- 

 hibited to the casual visitor. 

 , There are two methods of constructing the lay 



be found Prof. Holmes's views on the classification and 

 arrangement of the exhibits of an anthropological 

 museum. This essay, which will prove of considerable 

 value to those concerned in this class of work, was 

 previously published in the Journal of the Anthropolo- 

 gical Jtutitute (vol. xxxii. p. 353). 



In his address Dr. Bather dealt mainly with art 

 museums, but he alluded to folk museums, and Mr. 

 Henry Balfour, in his recent presidential address to the 

 .Anthropological Institute, advocates the establishment 

 of a national museum to illustrate the evolution of 

 culture in our islands ; he, like Dr. Bather, instances 

 what is done in this respect in Scandinavia and 

 Germany. Certainly this is much needed in our 

 country, and immediate steps should be taken to realise 

 it ; already much has irrevocably been lost, as there 

 was no institution that cared to preserve the relics of 

 former conditions. In the same address Mr. Balfour 

 gives some valuable suggestions for the arrangement 

 of ethnological museums. Mr. Balfour's address will 

 be printed in the forthcoming number of the Journal 

 of the Anthropological Institute, and it will be found 

 to be well worth perusal, as it embodies the long 

 experience of a well-known 

 expert in museum arrangement. 

 It is to be hoped that the time 

 may not be far distant when the 

 educational value of properly ar- 

 ranged ethnological museums 

 will be recognised in this country, 

 and the means will be found to 

 establish them. 



A. C. Haddon'. 



slightly sunken floor. 



figures of ethnological groups. The one is to make 

 casts of actual individuals, and the other is to have 

 effigies made by a sculptor. The Chicago groups are 

 examples of the former method, but the Washington 

 groups were made in the following manner ; — " The 

 sculptors were required to reproduce the physical type 

 in each instance as accurately as the available draw- 

 ing and photographs would permit. Especial effort 

 was made to give a correct impression of the group as 

 a whole, rather than to present portraits of individuals, 

 which can be better presented in other ways. Life 

 masks, as ordinarily taken, convey no clear notion of 

 the people ; the mask serves chiefly to misrepresent 

 the native countenance and disposition ; besides, the 

 individual face is not necessarily a good type of a 

 group. Good types may, however, be worked out by 

 the skilful artist and sculptor, who alone can adequately 

 present these little-understood people as they really 

 are and with reasonable unity in pose and expression." 

 These groups and the other ethnological exhibits 

 prepared under the direction of Prof. Holmes are 

 figured and described in the annual report of the U.S. 

 National Museum for 1901, published by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution in 1903. In the same volume will 



NO. 1801, VOL. 70] 



ROUND KAN CHEN JUNGA.' 

 'PHIS, work of Mr. Freshfield's 

 ■'- on a tour round Kanchen- 

 junga comes as a very welcome 

 addition to the litei'ature that 

 deals with the great mountain 

 peaks of the world. Kanchen- 

 junga (28,150 feet) is the third 

 highest measured peak on the 

 earth's surface, Mount Everest 

 being 29,002 feet, and K", in the 

 Karakoram range north of Kash- 

 mir, 28,278 feet high. At present 

 Mount Everest is hopelessly im- 

 possible of access, being in 

 Nepal, a country entirely closed to Europeans; K^ 

 also lies so far removed from civilisation that it takes 

 weeks of travelling, many days of it over glaciers, 

 to arrive even at its base. 



Kanchenjunga, however, can be seen from Dar- 

 jeeling, and the view of the peak from that place is 

 one of the grandest sights in the world. Kanchen- 

 junga and its attendant peaks form a solitary group of 

 mountains, which divides the province of Sikkim from 

 eastern Nepal, and lies far south of the watershed of 

 the Himalaya. 



It is now many years since Sir Joseph Hooker in 

 1848-1S50 made his famous journeys into the country 

 round Kanchenjunga, and obtained leave from the 

 Government of Nepal to travel in the Nepalese valleys 

 on the west and south-west of Kanchenjunga. This 

 leave has never been repeated, and it was not until 

 Mr. Freshfield and his party descended the glaciers on 

 the north of Kanchenjunga and trespassed in the 

 Kanchen valley that Englishmen again set foot in this 

 forbidden land. 



1 " Round Kanchenjunga ; a Narrative of Mountain Travel and Explor- 

 ation." By Douglas W. Freshfield. With Illustrations and Maps. 

 (London : Edward Arnold, 1903.) 



