526 
legend of the sacrifice by Bel of his only son, the Sun- 
god, for whom a later and more humane age substituted 
the ram. In the tariffs of Carthage and Marseilles a 
ram takes the place of the human victim of the earlier 
cult. 
The usual Accadian name of the third month was that 
“of bricks,” on account of the suitableness of May for 
house-building ; but I have also found it called “the 
double one,” in reference probably to the twin stars which 
were supposed to preside over it. Gemini is of course 
the modern descendant of this title. Cancer I cannot 
account for, and the name was perhaps of Greek origin, 
like Libra, which, as we learn from Achilles Tatius, was 
originally denominated the Claw of the Scorpion. Leo 
is at present equally obscure, but Virgo goes back to the 
Accadian sign of ‘‘the errand of Istar,’’? a name due to 
the belief that it was in August that the goddess 
Astarte descended into Hades in search of her betrothed, 
the Sun-god Tammuz or Adonis, who had been slain by 
the boar’s tusk. The month and sign which follow were 
dedicated to “ the illustrious mound,” the building of the 
tower of Babel being believed to correspond with the 
autumnal equinox. ‘The scorpion” was the chief star 
of the next month, the usual name of which, “the month 
which faces the beginning (of the year),’ seems to prove 
unmistakably that the year began with Taurus when the 
Accadians first named the months and signs. I cannot 
explain Sagittarius, but the goat was the Accadian name 
of the constellation Capricornus, and “the rainy season”’ 
was the title given to the month which was watched over 
by Aquarius. Finally, ‘the month of sowing” was that 
in which the Sun-god in his journey through heaven was 
called “the fish of Hea,’’ the god of the sea. 
It is evident from this that several of the names had a 
mythological parentage, and were due to the fact that 
certain myths were localised, as it were, in particular 
months. But other names equally clearly originated in 
the peculiarities of the season when the sun was in a 
special sign of the zodiac. This is certainly the case with 
Aquarius, and it is probable that fish were particularly 
abundant under Pisces when the lowlands of Babylonia 
had been inundated by the rains. Other names, again, 
were derived from the chief stars which lay near the path 
of the sun ; and the stars, as we have seen, were imagined 
to be endowed with life and so compared with the animals 
of this nether earth. Among the names of the stars pre- 
served to us in the Assyrian tablets, a large proportion 
are those of beasts and birds. It was these which gave 
the signs of the zodiac their zoological appearance, and 
caused the whole circle of signs to be designated by the 
Greeks the (wdcakds, or ‘‘ circle of animals.” 
A. H. SAYCE 
THE GEOLOGY OF SUTHERLAND 
Geological and Mineralogical Map of Sutherland. By 
M. Foster Heddle, M.D., F.R.S.E., &c., President of 
the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 
NYTHING relating to the Geology of Sutherland 
has a great interest for British geologists. It was 
there that the battle of the ‘“ North-West Succession” 
was fought out by Murchison, whose conclusions have 
been acquiesced in by most geologists. Notwithstanding 
NATURE 
[ April 6, 1882 
the evident simplicity of the structure of the country, 
there have always been some who have demurred from 
his interpretation, and who, discovering a few inaccuracies 
in his work, have endeavoured to invalidate its general 
results. The last phase of this dissent has just appeared 
in the form of a geological and mineralogical map by 
Prof. Heddle, and accompanying papers on the Geognosy 
of Sutherland, published in the Mineralogical Magazine. 
The map clearly shows a lower gneiss separated by the 
wreck of a wide-spread unconformable formation of 
sandstones and conglomerates frcm a higher group of 
quartzites, limestones, and schists. Thus far it corrobo- 
rates Sir Roderick, The author however tries to prove 
from the evidence afforded by chemical analysis that the 
Durness limestone with its lower Silurian fossils has no 
relation to any other rocks in the country, and conse- 
quently that there is no evidence of any other part of the 
Highland rocks belonging to the Silurian system. For 
this information we require to have recourse to the 
“ papers,” as the map only indicates that the Erribol and 
Assynt limestones, which Murchison and most geologists 
have identified with those of Durness, are dolomitic. 
They are therefore expressed by different colours. The 
physical and paleontological evidence, however, appears 
to be entirely against this notion. 
It is probably quite true, as Murchison himself pointed 
out, that at Durness the junctions of the limestone with 
surrounding rocks, whether upper or lower, are chiefly 
lines of fault. But it is no less certain, from the same 
testimony, that this limestone, with its admittedly Lower 
Silurian fossils, is seen to lie ;conformably upon and to 
form part of a lower quartzite, and itself to contain bands 
of quartzite. No later rock is seen to lie upon the lime- 
stone at Durness ; but most geologists who have visited 
the locality appear to have no hesitation in identifying 
this limestone with the band which runs on the top of the 
lower quartzite from Erribol through Assynt far into 
Ross-shire. Dr. Heddle maintains that the identification 
must be wrong because chemical analysis shows the com- 
position of the limestone to be different. Chemical 
analysis, though a useful help, is not always a safe basis 
for stratigraphical work. Inthe face of distinct palaon- 
tological facts, it must at once be set aside. Some of the 
same fossils which occur in the Durness Limestone are 
found also in strata associated with the Erribol and 
Assynt Limestones. The Serpudlites Maccullochii, so 
characteristic a fossil of the zone immediately below the 
Assynt Limestone, occurs also in the limestone of Dur- 
ness. Orthoceratites have been detected in the limestone 
of Assynt.1. The cause of the difference in composition 
between the rocks at Durness and in Assynt may very 
properly be made the subject of chemical investigation, 
but all the analyses in the world cannot overturn the 
evidence of recognisable fossils. 
The Assynt and Durness area is the only part of Dr. 
Heddle’s map which has been worked out in detail, and 
which gives a fair idea of the geological structure of the 
ground. Ona map of such a scale as half an inch to a 
mile, one would naturally have expected marked petro- 
graphical bands, and the general dispositicn of the rocks, 
to have been clearly distinguished. But in these respects 
the author has not availed himself of the opportunity 
1 © Siluria,"’ 4th edit. p. 166 ( footnote). 
