‘DECEMBER 24, 1896] 
the Cimbrians of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, driven to the west 
of Europe by the Scythian invasion in the seventh century B.C. 
These Cymbrians had already had relations with the Greek 
world, for the Greeks had established colonies and introduced 
metals and the cultivation of the soil in Southern Russia before 
the arrival of the Scythians, and they may be regarded as the 
importers of the dialect from which the German languages arose. 
They were of the same race as the Neolithic blonds. 
The Goths were driven away from the northern borders of the 
Black Sea by the Huns before the end of the fourth century ; 
but though they remained during only two centuries, traces of 
their stay have been discovered. 
The Alains, mentioned by authors in the first century A.D., 
were a blond people mixed with Medes, and possibly with the 
Scythian Massagetes. The Ossethes sprang from these Scythian 
Alains, who were driven into the Caucasus after the Gothic 
period by the pressure of the Huns. Thus the Ossethes are 
essentially Aryans and Europeans, despite the Iranian and 
Asiatic origin of their language, these originally blond Euro- 
peans, have been intimately mingled with Scythians, and later 
with other Caucasians, mostly browns and brachycephals. M. 
Kovalewsky states that among the Ossethes, when a bride 
enters for the first time her husband’s house, she is greeted with 
‘* Prosperity ! prosperity ! nine boys and a girl with blue eyes.” 
The latter wish could never arise amongst a brown population. 
In his work ‘* Droit Coutumier Osséthien”’ (1893), Kovalewsky 
details numerous customs which, as Zaborowski points out, 
abundantly confirm the essentially European and Aryan origin 
of this nation ; and the former author compares them with those 
of the Greeks of Homer, the Germans of Tacitus, and with the 
Romans, such, for example, as the cult of the hearth-fire, house- 
hold arrangements, marriage ceremonies, and burial customs. 
The Armenians, like the Ossethes, are a people with their 
original characters modified. They were also blond, at least in 
great part, and even now II per cent. are blonds according to 
Chantre. 
In the Hindu Kush there are many traces of a fair race, and 
Zaborowski enters into a comparison of the Kafirs with the 
Ossethes, which tends to show that they are closely related. 
THE HORN EXPEDITION TO CENTRAL 
AUSTRALIA. 
“THE Report on the work of the Horn Scientific Expedition 
to Central Australia has now been completed. It is 
published in four parts, the first of which is devoted to. the 
narrative and summary of scientific results, while the three 
remaining parts deal respectively with zoology, geology and 
botany, and anthropology. The zoological results were reviewed 
in NATURE a short time ago (vol. liv. p. 241), and we propose 
to deal with the part on anthropology in a future issue. For 
the present we confine ourselves to summarising the knowledge 
gained of the geology and botany of the region explored, prefacing 
the synopsis with a statement of the inception and objects of the 
expedition, and of the region traversed, this introductory matter 
being based upon the Narrative. : 
Objects of the Expedition. 
Mr. W. A. Horn, who defrayed the cost of the expedition to 
Central Australia, and through whose generosity the Report has 
been published, deserves the gratitude of men of science. The 
results which he has been the means of obtaining are most 
valuable contributions to the knowledge of the natural history 
of a little-known region; and by the accumulation of these 
facts, gained by direct observation, many perplexing questions 
will be elucidated. One of these questions is referred to by Mr. 
Horn in a brief introduction to the Narrative. For some time 
the opinion has been held that when the Australian continent 
was submerged the elevated portions of the McDonnell Range in 
Central Australia existed as an island, and that consequently 
older forms of life might be found in the more inaccessible 
parts. The scientific exploration of this belt of country. was, 
therefore, much desired by men of science, and when Mr. Horn 
expressed his intention to organise and equip an exploring 
party, the scheme was received with great favour. In order to 
secure the services of the best men in Australia, the Premiers of 
the principal colonies were asked to nominate scientific repre- 
sentatives. As -a result, Prof. Baldwin Spencer, Mr. J. 
Alexander Watt, Prof. Ralph Tate, and Dr. Edward Stirling 
NO. 1417, VOL. 55] 
NATURE 
185 
joined the expedition, and Mr. C. A. Winnecke was chosen as 
surveyor and meteorologist. 
The objects of the expedition as set down in the articles under 
which the members started were :—The scientific examination of 
the country from Oodnadatta to the McDonnell Range ; the col- 
lection of specimens illustrative of the fauna, flora, and geo- 
logical structure and mineralogical resources of that region, and 
the illustration by photography of any remarkable natural 
features of the country traversed ; the securing of photographs of 
the aborigines in their primitive state, the collection of informa- 
tion as to their manners, customs, and language, and the repro- 
duction of their mural paintings. The expedition started in 
May 18g4, and returned in August of the same year, burdened 
with the records and the photographic spoil of the region 
which the members went out to see. 
The McDonnell Ranges. 
The McDonnell Ranges are in the very centre of Australia, 
they are barren and rugged in the extreme, rise to an altitude of 
nearly 5000 feet above sea-level, while the copntry surrounding 
them has an altitude of about 2000 feet, sloping away on every 
side towards the coast, 1000 miles distant. The mountains are 
at the head of the river Finke, and for this region, including the 
valley of the Finke, the name of Larapintine has been adopted 
from the native name of the Finke, ‘‘ Larapinta.” It was over 
this area that most of the explorations were conducted. 
The general editor of the Report on the work of the expedition 
is Prof. Baldwin Spencer, who is also the author of the 
Narrative. Without entering into too many details, Prof. Spencer 
summarises, in a more or less popular form, in this part of the 
report, the work accomplished, and gives a good idea of the 
nature of the country through which the expedition passed. 
Nature of the Country traversed. 
It is usual to speak of the whole interior of Australia as a 
desert or Eremian country, but Prof. Spencer shows that this 
name as applied to the whole area is very misleading. It is 
true that over wide areas extending especially over the western 
half of the interior there spead out sandhills and flats covered 
with Mulga scrub or ‘* Porcupine”’ grass, which may justly be 
described as desert, but in addition to this there is a vast track 
of country watered by streams which at varying intervals of 
time are swollen with heavy floods which spread out over wide 
tracts, and for a time transform the whole country into a land 
covered with a luxuriant growth of vegetation. To this part 
of the continent the name of the Australian Steppes has been 
applied. The Lower Steppes extend over the area occupied 
by the great Cretaceous formation with its alternating stony or 
gibber plains, loamy flats, and low-lying terraced hills capped 
with Desert Limestone. At Lake Eyre the land is 39 feet 
below sea-level, and gradually rises to a height of tooo feet at 
its northern limit. What are termed the Higher Steppes are 
characterised by high ridges of Ordovician and Pre-Cambrian 
rocks which stretch across the centre of the continent from east 
to west for some 400 miles. The average elevation of these 
Higher Steppes may be taken-as about 2000 feet, and above 
them the higher peaks of the ridges rise for some 2500 feet 
more. 
Prof. Spencer devotes two chapters in his Narrative to the 
country belonging to the Lower Steppes, two to the Higher 
Steppes, and one to the Desert Region. The gibber plains to 
which he refers consist of flat surfaces covered with a layer of 
purple-brown stones, varying in size from an inch to perhaps a 
foot in diameter, and all made smooth by the constant wearing 
away of wind-borne sand-grains. Judging from the description, 
and the views which illustrate it, nothing could be more deso- 
late than a gibber plain when everything is bare and dry. 
Throughout this district the low flat-topped desert hills have a thin 
capping of hard chalcedonised sandstone, and it is by the dis- 
integration of this rock that the gibbers or stones have been 
produced. The stony gibber plains merge constantly into 
loamy plains covered with poor scrub, but on which the gibbers 
are wanting. It is suggested that these loamy plains occupy 
areas on which the Upper Cretaceous rocks are not capped 
with the hard chalcedonised Desert Sandstone, and where, 
therefore, no gibbers have been formed. 
Colours of Animats. 
Some interesting remarks are made by Prof. Spencer on the 
subject of protective colouration. Prof. Spencer has collected 
animals in Central Australia, both in the dry season and in the 
