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vast region which is occupied by the Eskimo the degree of 

 civilisation is practically the same, that civilisation being of a 

 mde nature. Speaking of their relations to other nations, the 

 Professor remarked on the broad belt of enmity, a debatable 

 ground, that exists between the Eskimo and the Red Indian, 

 between whom there is no friendship. But, he said, there is a 

 likeness between the tongues of the two races, though this does 

 not by any means prove any affinity between them. Coaling to 

 the question of the date of the settlement of the Eskimo in 

 Greenland, he said that Markham's assumption that they crossed 

 by Behring Straits from Asia, being driven forth by Tartar 

 hordes, was purely assumption, and that this opinion was not 

 shared by Mr. Dall or himself. He held that there was proof 

 that the Eskimo, in the year iogo, ranged farther southward than 

 where we are now. There was reason to believe this, he said, 

 by archaeological proofs, and he maintained that the Eskimo 

 were a retreating race, being continually driven farther north by 

 stronger and more powerful tribes, such as the Red Indians, and 

 that if the Arctic regions had been less inclement (this being 

 safety to this people), before this time the Eskimo would have 

 been exterminated by the Red Indians. Even in Asia, he 

 said, these were a retreating race, pushed farther to north and 

 east by pursuing tribes. The lecturer remarked on the word 

 " kayak'' or boat, used by the Eskimo, and its likeness to the 

 word (caique) used for the same object by the Turkish people, 

 and quoted his friend Dr. Isaac Taylor, who had traced the 

 history of this word. He explained the etymology of this word 

 in an interesting manner, and caused a little laughter by re- 

 marking that the boat was used by the Eskimo to carry their 

 "wives, children, and other chattels." He said, in concluding 

 the first portion of his inquiry, that, from proofs established, the 

 Eskimo formerly lived in a wide range of country far more south 

 than their present habitation, and that they were driven to the 

 north by more powerful nation --. Speaking of the range of the 

 Eskimo in time, Prof. Dawkins made some very interesting 

 remarks on the habits and implements of the cave-dwellers in 

 Europe. Illustrating the artistic power of these dwellers, the 

 lecturer pointed out an enlarged sketch of a reindeer, drawn on 

 bone, and found in a cave in Switzerland. This sketch, he said, 

 was perfectly natural, and was admirably done by the skin-clad 

 artist whom he pictured. He also showed the picture of an 

 elephant, with trunk uplifted, and mouth opened, found in a 

 cave in Auvergne. The habits of life of these cave-dwellers in 

 Europe, he said, were the same as those of the Eskimo, and 

 those only of the Eskimo ; their implements were the same, and 

 he would connect them in many ways, such as neglect of the 

 rites of sepulture, for instance. The cave-dwellers, he main- 

 tained, were in every respect similar to the Eskimo, and this 

 bore out his theory that the latter people are a retreating race in 

 Europe, and once lived far southward of their present range. 

 With regard to the time at which these cave-dwellers existed, 

 and when the Eskimo came into America, the Professor said 

 that the former dwelt in Europe in what is known as the 

 "Pliocene" period. He said that in his opinion the Eskimo 

 represented as a race the ancient cave-dwellers of Europe, and 

 as such he regarded them with interest and respect. He thought 

 that the difficulty of the question of migration was partly dis- 

 posed of by the fact that the water of Behring Straits was 

 extremely shallow, and in concluding a most interesting address, 

 ile recapitulated the proofs that he had brought forward in order 

 to support his assertions. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam, Curator of the Peabody Museum of 

 American Archreology and Ethnology at Harvard University, 

 gave a short notice of The Recent Explorations by Dr. C. L. 

 Metz and himself in the Lit/le Nicami Valley, Ohio. The parti- 

 cular mounds to the singular structure of which Mr. Putnam con- 

 fined his remarks he has called the Turner group. The mounds, 

 out of one of which he had taken seventy-three skeletons, were 

 hurial mounds of the ancient Indians, and some seem to have 

 been erected for an entirely different purpose. By means of 

 rough sketches, Mr. Putnam illustrated the formation of these 

 mounds. One of these seemed, from the fact that everything 

 in it had been burnt, to be erected for a sacrificial purpose. A 

 mass of a peculiar substance, like ashes, but which was not ashes, 

 was found in the mound. What this substance was the lecturer 

 did not know, but it was now being analysed by chemists. He 

 described in detail the interior of the mounds which had been 

 explored, noticing the covered pits which were found in them, 

 some of these containing ashes and animal bones. A mixture 

 of iron and gravel, forming a solid cement, was a curious feature 



in the mound, as the presence of the iron could not be accounted 

 for. He said that previous explorations of the mounds had 

 been very superficial, and had led to misrepresentation on the 

 subject, but he had found that the removal of every inch of earth 

 was necessary in order thoroughly to explore therm and this was 

 done. In one mound two complete skeletons were found, in 

 the midst of ashes. Round these were fragments of three other 

 skeletons, and sixteen skulls, six of these latter having holes 

 bored in them, evidently with stone drills. Scratches on the 

 skulls showed how the flesh had been scraped away with a stone 

 knife, and the skulls had evidently been placed round the skele- 

 tons for the purpose of ornament. Mr. Putnam said that in 

 many respects these mounds were totally different from any that 

 had yet been discovered and explored in this country. He 

 showed photographs to illustrate his subject, amongst them being 

 a remarkable specimen of art in the shape of a representation of 

 a human face cut out of a sheet of mica. This, he said, would 

 favourably compare with Dr. Dawkins' sketch of an elephant's 

 head drawn by a cave-dweller of Europe. The speaker also 

 noticed many other artistic objects, such as bracelets of copper 

 covered with native silver, and peculiar and large earrings of the 

 same material. In other cases he had found objects covered 

 with native meteoric iron and with native gold ; also terra-cotta 

 images of small size, most of them much broken by the action of 

 the fire into which they had been thrown. He remarked upon the 

 likeness in many respects that the ornamentation of these objects 

 bore to the work of the Egyptians. 



A paper by Dr. Paul Topinard was read, entitled Instruc- 

 tions anthropometriqnes eleincntaire. The author described 

 various instruments that had been devised by him for enabling 

 inexperienced travellers to take measurements of the human body 

 with moderate accuracy. 



Mr. Jeremiah Curtin read a paper On Myths of the Modoc 

 Indians. He said that there were between three and four 

 hundred Modocs, most of whom were in the Indian Territory 

 and Southern Oregon. He proceeded to read a "myth" of 

 these people which related to a personage called the Blue 

 Woman, who was supposed by the Indians to be the second 

 person in the Universe. This story, which was something like 

 a fairy tale, was taken down in the original language by the 

 speaker himself. He described the hardships through which the 

 young Modocs went in order to fit themselves for manhood, 

 such as climbing a mountain in order to reach an almost inac- 

 cessible pond, in which they swam. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 

 Journal of the Russian Chemical an, I Physical Society, vol. xvi. 

 fasc. 6. — On the succession of reactions, by M. Lvoff, being 

 an introduction into a series of researches undertaken by the 

 author and several students, in order to disclose the mechanism 

 of polymerisation. — On the action of chlorine on butylenes, by 

 M. Chechoukoff. — On constants of chemical affinity, by W. 

 Ostwald. The author, who maintains the views of Berthollet, 

 further elaborated by Guldberg and Waage, considers that there 

 is, for each body, a certain numerical coefficient of its chemical 

 affinities as characteristic for the body as its atomic weight ; and 

 in addition to his former works, already published in the Journal 

 fiirpract. Chemie, he publishes now a preliminary list of "con- 

 stants of chemical reactions." — On glycidic acids, by P. Melikoff. 

 — On the displacement of chlorine by bromine, and an explana- 

 tion of the reactions which are accompanied by a disengagement 

 of heat, by A. Potylitzin. The substitution of chlorine by bro- 

 mine, in seeming contradiction with the law of maximum work, 

 and which Berthelot has endeavoured to explain by the formation 

 of chloric bromine and bromides of metals, could be explained by 

 admitting that the reaction is going on with the heat received 

 from the surrounding medium. This important inquiry, pursued 

 by the author for several years past, brings him to interest- 

 ing conclusions on thermo-chemistry. — On asarone, by MM. 

 Rizza and A. Butleroff, being an inquiry into the properties of 

 the camphor received from Asarum europceutn. — On a new 

 apparatus for determining specific heat, by W. Loughinin. It 

 is a modification of the apparatus of Neumann. — On the reduc- 

 tion of isodinitrobenzyl, by P. Goloubeff. — On the prepara- 

 tion of animal colouring matters from albuminoid substances, by 

 W. Mikhailoff. — On azophenylacetic acid, note by M. Witten- 

 berg. — On the solution of lithium carbonate in water, note by 

 J. Bevad. — On a hygienic photometer for schools, by Prof. 



