November 16, 1905] 



NA TURE 



67 



commented. The methods by which the artist achieved 

 such wonderfully spirited and life-like results were simple 

 indeed. Coloured earth, pounded stones, charcoal, blood, 

 and bird-fat constituted his pigments. A flat stone was his 

 primitive palette. His brushes were perhaps made of the 

 coarse hair of the male wildebeeste or buffalo. Elsewhere 

 he scratched on the walls of his rock-shelter with a stone 

 a little harder than the surface to be adorned. Much 

 interest is obviously shown in the details. Obscenity, as 

 such, is rare. By way of illustration of the technique 

 of these drawings, a copy of a Bushman battle picture 

 from the Natal side of the Orakensberg Range, near 

 Bushman's Pass, and an unpublished drawing by a 

 member of the Kamilaroi tribe of eastern Australia were 

 exhibited, and compared to the disadvantage of the latter 

 in strength, vividness, and accuracy of portrayal. Finally, 

 the object and meaning of the drawings were touched 

 upon, but not discussed, by the author, possibly because 

 too little is known as yet ; perhaps too little ever will be 

 known to give rise to more than conjecture. It may be 

 observed, however, that the late Mr. G. W. Stow, the 

 author of a book recently published on the natives of 

 South Africa, formed a large collection of copies of Bush- 

 man drawings. These were examined by the president 

 and several members of the section after the meeting was 

 over, and a strong desire was expressed that they should 

 be published. If this could be done, a careful collation 

 might result in some conclusions as to the motives which 

 prompted and the circumstances which developed these 

 remarkable exhibitions of artistic power by a people usually- 

 accounted so low in the scale of humanity — conclusions 

 which might, moreover, throw unexpected light on the 

 similar memorials left by the pak-eolithic people of central 

 France. 



A descriptive summary of recent discoveries of stone 

 implements in South Africa was presented by Mr. J. P. 

 Johnson. 



Mr. A. E. Mabille read a paper on the Basuto. As a 

 grandson of the famous missionary Casalis, who had lived 

 (except for a few years when he was completing his 

 education at Paris) his whole life in touch with the people, 

 the author was specially fitted to deal with the subject ; 

 and the paper was valuable for the statistics it contained 

 and the picture it offered of the present condition and 

 customs of the Basuto under the British protectorale. In 

 the discussion which followed some exception was taken 

 to the use of the word Modimo for God, but the author 

 defended its use on the ground that it was the word long 

 ago adopted by the missionaries, and, whether rightly or 

 wrongly adopted at that time, its use was now fullv under- 

 stood and accepted among the Basuto themselves. 



On Wednesday. August 30, Prof, von Luschan read a 

 paper on the racial affinities of the Hottentots, in which 

 he contended, mainly on the evidence of the Hottentol 

 language, that the Hottentot were a Hamitic people which 

 had come into contact with the Bushmen and absorbed 

 Bushman characteristics. Apart from a few roots and 

 clicks, he declared the Hottentot language to be strii llv 

 Hamitic. On the physical side, the loss of their original 

 high stature and the acquisition of steatopvgia and of 

 the spiral curled hair of the Bushman have been the 

 penalties of intermarriage with the pigmy people. 



Mr. Randall Maclver exhibited and described a number 

 of lantern slides of the Rhodesian ruins. His report on 

 his recent examination of the ruin- was read in greater 

 detail at an evening meeting at Bulawayo. It may here 

 be said, however, that he has with some probabilitv 

 established by his researches the native origin of the ruins, 

 and shown that most of them are of no great antiquity, 

 in no case going back to more than hoo or 700 years. 

 They are essentially Bantu kraals in stone. Great Zim- 

 babwe he identified with the capital of Monomotapa, as 

 di 31 ribed by the earlier Portuguese travellers. All the 

 pri blems connected with the ruins are not yet solved. We 

 are still ignorant what gave the artistic and military 

 impulses to the erection of these structures, against what 

 enemy they were planned, and what led to their ruin and 

 abandonment. These matters can only be determined, if 

 at all, by accurate scientific exploration, and not bv mere 

 speculation like much of that which has been hitherto 

 wasted upon these mysterious remains. 



Not the least important day in this section was Friday, 

 September 1. Besides papers by the well known 

 missionary M. Junod on the Thonga tribe (illustrated by 

 an interesting exhibition of native music, both vocal and 

 instrumental), and by Mr. J. W. Shepstone, C.M.G., 

 giving a general sketch of the native tribes, two striking 

 communications were read, the one by the Rev. E. 

 Goltschling on the Bawenda, and the other by the Rev. 

 W. ('. Willoughby on the totemism of the Bechuana. 

 Mr. Gottschling's paper was partly historical, partly de- 

 scriptive, and gave a number of particulars hitherto un- 

 published relating to the Bawenda, a tribe of Bantu in the 

 north-east of the Transvaal, and their customs and beliefs. 

 Some of the details were of quite extraordinary interest. 

 Mr. Willoughby 's paper was a discussion of a number of 

 points connected with the totemic practices and of the 

 relation to them of various ceremonies not usually re- 

 garded as totemic in origin, in which oxen and certain 

 vegetables play an important part. The writer's con- 

 clusions were open to much debate, for which little time 

 was found. The paper, however, as a whole was so 

 suggestive, directing attention to aspects of the Bantu 

 religious ceremonies other than those from which thev are 

 usually regarded, that it will be a great pity if this paper, 

 as well as that of Mr. Gottschling, be not published in 

 some form accessible to anthropologists. 



The business of the section was wound up with graceful 

 words of thanks by the president to the local committee, 

 and in particular to Mr. A. von Dessauer, the local 

 sectional secretary, to whose energy, forethought, and 

 organising ability the success of the Johannesburg meeting 

 was so largely due. 



no. 1 88 1, vol. 73] 



THE SOLAR OBSERVATORY ON MOUNT 

 WILSON, CALIFORNIA. 1 



TN a report entitled "A Study of the Conditions for 

 x Solar Research at Mt. Wilson, California," an outline 

 was given of the circumstances that have resulted in tin- 

 establishment of a solar observatory on Mount Wilson by 

 the Carnegie Institution of Washington. At tin- recent 

 annual meeting of the board of trustees, a grant of 

 150,000 dollars was authorised, for use during 1905. It 

 is expected that the first equipment will cost about twice 

 this sum, and that important additions will result in the 

 future from the operation of a large and well appointed 

 instrument and optical shop. 



In April, 1004, a grant of 10,000 dollars was made b\ 

 the executive committee of the Carnegie Institution for 

 the purpose of bringing the Snow telescope to Mount 

 Wilson from the Verkes Observatory. An expedition for 

 solar research was accordingly organised under the joint 

 auspices of the University of Chicago and the Carnegie 

 Institution, with the understanding that the funds granted 

 by the Carnegie Institution would be used for the con- 

 struction of piers and buildings, and for other expenses 

 incidental to the work, while the University of Chi, ago 

 would furnish the instrumental equipment and pay the 

 salaries of some of the members of the part v. 



It is a fortunate circumstance that the construction and 

 use of a great reflecting telescope, with a five-foot mirror, 

 is in the general plan of research laid down for the Solar 

 Observatory. In " Year Book" No. 2 (p. 40) of the 

 Carnegie Institution may be found a report on this sub- 

 ject, prepared at the request of Profs. Boss and Campbell, 

 my colleagues on the committee, and improved in many 

 particulars as the result of their criticisms. The prime 

 object of the Solar Observatory is to apply new instru- 

 ments and methods of research in a study of the physical 

 elements of the problem of stellar evolution. Since the 

 sun is the only star near enough the earth to permit its 

 phenomena to be studied in detail, special attention will 

 be devoted to solar physics. It is hoped that the know- 

 ledge of solar phenomena tints gained will assist to explain 

 certain stellar phenomena. Conversely, the knowledge ol 

 nebular and stellar conditions t,, be obtained through 

 spectroscopic and photographic investigations with the 



1 Abridged from No. 2 of "Contributions from the Solar Observatory nf 

 the Carneeie Institution of Washington," by Prof. G. E. Hale, director 

 of the Observatory 



