462 NATURE 
[April 17, 1873 
> ft ins ft. an. 
1. A thin layer of stalagmite. ; 
2. Black impure guano i O39 tot 10 
3. White clay with Potamides decollatus 1 © me TO) 
Be iGuano” “seen aces) seo ses, Olea variable 
5. Debris of clay and guano, with frag- 
ments of limestone and stalagmite 
Inabundance:..0 7... 1. sae LO, 3 0 
6. Pure yellow felspathic clay AS 20:55) 5 90 
7. Limestone floor. 
This particular cave could not be readily worked owing to the 
influx of water, but other caves exist at higher levels which 
would be more promising. The expense for six months’ work, 
according to Mr. Everett’s estimate, would not be more than the 
mere passage-money of anyone going out from England. I may 
add that Mr. Everett quite understands the proper mode of 
working, having had personal communication with Mr. Pengelly 
on the subject at Kent’s Cavern. He is now thoroughly familiar 
with the country and the workmen to be employed, and it seems 
a great pity that advantage should not be taken of his residence 
in so interesting a locality, the proper exploration of which may 
throw light on a variety of biological problems. 
ALFRED R, WALLACE 
Vou will recollect that some three years ago I came to 
Sarawak with the object of making general collections of 
natural history and, more particularly, of investigating the cave- 
deposits of Borneo. 
“From time to time I made excavations in various caves situated 
in Upper Sarawak, being assisted pecuniarily by the Rajah to 
a certain extent. These excavations varied in depth from 4 ft. 
to 14 ft., and were made in different situations in the caves, No 
remains of interest, however, were discovered beyond some teeth 
of a Hystrix, and bones of man, bats, geckoes, &c., in the most 
superficial deposits, and the only result worth recording was the 
find of a stone axe-head in a bed of river-gravel. This celt was 
forwarded to Sir C. Lyell, and such remains as were obtained 
from the caves were sent to Messrs. Busk and Pengelly at inter- 
vals ; but tlie latter, together with a recent tooth of Rhinoceros 
and two collections of misce!l:aneous specimens, appear to have 
been wrongly transhipped in Singapore, and I have never been 
able to trace their whereabouts. 
“ After considerable observation and experience I now wish to 
state with all frankne s my belief that my work was not carried 
on as it should have been, and that the non-existence of ossi- 
ferous deposits in the Bornean caverns is very far from being a 
proven fact. The inquiry as conducted by myself was not 
thorough, and it was unsatisfactory partly because I was in 
serious pecuniary difficulties myself, and partly because what I 
saw of the poverty of the Government and the remarks I heard 
dropped about the folly of expending money on such objects 
made me very shy of taxing the Rajah’s liberality. Iwas, and 
am still, persuaded that the expense of cave-working in a country 
like this would have proved very much heavier than the Rajah 
had any idea of, and hence I worked with inadequate support. 
‘*Tn the event of those who are interested in the exploration 
being desirous of having it continued, I venture to suggest that 
the person chosen for the work must either possess considerable 
private means or he must be employed at a regular salary ; and 
further, that the work should be carried onswith sufficient funds 
to render it independent of any assistance the Government here 
might afford. Money is so scarce here, and public wants so 
many and pressing, that assistance for purely scientific objects is 
not to be expected. Coolies are not procurable now under a 
wage of 2/. a month, and, owing to the rivers being the only 
roads, travelling expenses are heavy. For tools, lights, gun- 
powder for blasting, and such preliminary expenses, a sum of 15/. 
would be sufficient ; and the monthly working expenses would 
vary from 10/. to perhaps as much as 15/., according to the ac- 
cessibility of the cave to be explored ; so that for working a cave 
for three months a sum of 65/. would probably be required. 
“* As I am now employed in the Government service, I do not 
think I could undertake the woik unless a formal application 
was made to the Rajah for the necessary leave of absence. Even 
were leave obtained, I do not suppose that I should continue on 
Government pay, and I could not afford to undertake the work 
under a salary of 25/. per month. The cheapest way of conducting 
the exploration would be to send out a gentleman of independent 
means who would do the work for its own sake, and then only 
the actual working expenses need be subscribed for. Supposing 
remains were ultimately found, the item of freight would have to 
be added to the working expenses. 
‘*T am induced to write you this leiter from reading a note in 
Natore for June 13, 1872, with regard to the Victoria caves, in 
which two years of constant but seemingly fruitless work has in 
the end proved successful. Trusting that another exploration 
may be attempted in this far more important field, and with like 
success, I remain, &c., *© A. EVERETT 
*©To A. R. Wallace, 
“Sarawak, February 1, 1873” 
A Fact for Mr. Darwin 
THE interesting fact contained in the following passage ap- 
pears to me to deserve disinterment from the pages of a very 
large book, a work too, which, so far as I know, has never been 
translated. It occurs in the “ Expétologie Générale” (Par Duméril 
et Bibron, tome vi. p. 467), and I met with it while employed 
in working out a collection of reptiles, which I was engaged in 
classifying. The passage is as follows :—‘‘Dans les villes 
d’Egypte, on rencontre souvent des charlatans exposant a la 
curiosité publique des Eryx javelots vivants auxquels, afin de 
les faire passer pour des Cérastes, ils ont en le soin d’implanter, 
en maniére de corne, audessus de chaque ceil, un ongle d’oiseau 
ou de petit mammifére, par le méme procédé que celui qu’on 
emploie dans nos fermes pour fixer deux ergots sur la créte de 
certains cogs quand on les chaponne. 
“« C’est d'apres des individus ayant la téte ainsi armée de deux 
fausses cornes, qu’ Hasselquist a fait son Anguis cerastes. Nous 
avons dans les collections du muséum des individus dont la téte 
porte ainsi des ongles recourbés d’oiseau, avec leur cheville 
osseuse, dont l’adhérence 4 la peau est parfaite.” 
Here is a fact, not only well authenticated, but capable of 
verification, demonstrating such close affinity of intimate structure 
and function between animals of different classes, that the skin 
appendage of one has been actually engrafted upon the skin of 
the other; the claw of a bird has formed perfect union with the 
skin of a snake. A good illustration of the affinity between 
birds and reptiles pointed out by Prof. Huxley. 
I do not notice that statement about the claw of a small 
mammal being used for this purpose, because specimens illus- 
tra!ing it are not referred to. 
The snakes alluded to in the passage are the Eryx FYaculus 
(one of the Erycidz or sand-snakes of Dr. Giinther), which is 
perfectly harmless: and the Cerastes Hasselguistii, a small but 
fierce and venomous viper; both inhabiting Egypt, and the 
latter supposed to have been the ‘‘asp” of Cleopatra. The 
Cerastes obtains its name from the so-called ‘‘ horns,” peculiar 
to the males, which are developed from modified scales over the 
centre of each orbit, attaining the length of about half an inch. 
The Eryx is about the same size as the Cerastes, for which it is 
passed off by the Egyptian snake-charmers, when manufactured 
as above described, H, D, Massy 
Grenada Villas, Netley, near Sou'‘hampton 
The Pheenician Vademecum 
Ir is gratifying to see (vol. vii. p. 351) that you express a doubt 
whether the Cowrie shells in the Pomeranian barrows must 
necessarily, as Wagner supposes, have been brought by the 
Phoenicians. Because the earliest Greek historians introduced 
the Phoenicians to us they have been employed as a universal 
machinery for carrying out all kinds of operations. This theory 
is in fact incompatible with our present knowledge of the dura- 
tion of the human race, and, we may say, with the relative an- 
tiquity of the Phcenician epoch, which can date but little beyond 
the historic period. Thus we are led to neglect the evidences of 
skulls, weapons, tools, monuments, and languages, which show 
that there must have been communica‘ions between distant 
regions long before the rise of the Phoenicians. There are 
many prehistoric races which had a sufficiently wide distribution 
to provide for the dissemination of such a small object 2s the 
Cowrie. Among these may be named the dwarf or short races, 
of which the Mincopies of the Andamans are a type; the race 
now represented by the Agays of the Nile, Avkhass of Cau- 
casus (Achivi), and Omagua and Guarani of Brazil; and the 
Dravidian race. Populations which could distribute men over 
the continents and islands of Europe, Africa, Australia, and the 
Americas must have been capable of distributing cowries and 
beads without Phoenician intervention. At present the Phoe- 
