December 15, 1898] 



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161 



owing to these facilities and the shorter distance, sailing vessels 

 soon became superseded by steamers, and it was estimated that 

 2,000,000 tons of vessels were thus thrown out of employment. 

 Under the old system, when voyages from India took the greater 

 part of a year, and the time of arrival could not be calculated 

 within a month or two, it was necessary to keep large stocks to 

 meet the varying demand for goods, and hence the erection of 

 the enormous range of warehouses at the India Docks. Steamers 

 by way of the canal make the voyage in thirty days, and the 

 time of their arrival can be regulated within a day or two ; 

 shorter voyages and punctuality of arrival make it possible for 

 merchants to order direct from the East, and hence less capital 

 is required and the cost of warehousing saved. The Suez 

 Canal has had a material effect in fostering the growth and 

 export to this country of Indian tea, which has increased from 

 II to 120 million pounds. The export of rice from India has 

 also enormously increased since the opening of the canal, and 

 now constitutes the largest single item in the export trade of 

 India. When the only route was round by the Cape the 

 difficulty in transporting wheat, owing to its liability to heat 

 during the voyage, and the loss from weevils, made the export 

 of grain unprofitable. Since the opening of the canal India has 

 become the second exporting country of the world, the exports 

 of grain amounting now to over 50,000,000 bushels. 



Other merchandise, both of import and export, has been 

 affected to a less degree ; the shorter route has also rendered 

 possible the export from Australia and New Zealand of very 

 large quantities of meat, fruit and other food products. 



The Saint Mary Falls Canal, commonly called "The Soo," 

 has now a traffic even larger than that of the Suez Canal, and 

 exceeds the total foreign trade of the port of New York. The 

 development of the trade jiow carried on over the Great Lakes 

 is almost entirely due to this "Soo" canal. The size of 

 vessels engaged in the navigation in 1870 averaged 175 tons; 

 now there are five lines, owning sixty steamships of from 1750 

 to 3000 tons. The increase in trade is due in a great measure 

 to the opening out of the iron mines of northern Michigan and 

 Wisconsin, which have been made available by the canal route 

 from the mines to the ports in the southern lakes. But the most 

 important factor in the increase of the navigation is the trans- 

 port of wheat and flour, the low rates at which these can be 

 carried by water encouraging the growth over a very widely 

 extended area of country. The other resources which have 

 been developed by the construction of this canal are timber, 

 coal and copper. One conspicuous feature due to this canal is 

 the immense increase in population in the Lake Superior region 

 and the development of towns. 



ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE BRITISH 

 ASSOCIATION. 



""PHE Anthropological Section met in the Park Place School- 

 room, under the presidency of Mr. E. W. Brabrook, C. B. , 

 ex-President of the Anthropological Institute. 



On Thursday, September 8, the morning's programme consisted 

 mainly of papers on physical anthropology. 



The sixth annual Report of the Committee on the mental and 

 physical deviations from the normal among children in public 

 elementary and other schools was read by Mr. White Wallis, 

 and gave a further account of those children whose mental and 

 physical condition renders them unfitted for the public education 

 provided in ordinary elementary day schools. The new 

 information has been mostly obtained by studying the cor- 

 relations of the cases, and the facts tabulated show that great 

 difficulties must arise in making any provision for the proper 

 care of these children, who show a much greater tendency than 

 average children to become delicate under an adverse environ- 

 ment. The large proportion of both boys and girls who present 

 " abnormal nerve-signs " shows the importance of trying to 

 remove each such sign by carefully adapted physical training, 

 and that the improvement of the brain condition of such children 

 below the average in mental and physical development requires 

 skilled teachers and good hygienic surroundings. 



Mr. O. H. Howarth read a paper on human life at high 

 altitudes, with the object of determining whether the adapt- 

 ability of man to extreme conditions is of comparatively 

 recent development, or of gradual growth. He exhibited an 

 object which he regarded as a stone celt, found at an elevation 



of 7700 feet in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. As causes of 

 human inhabitation of extreme altitudes, he named the pursuit 

 of industries impracticable elsewhere, and seclusion for religious 

 purposes, and enumerated the conditions favourable and un- 

 favourable to the persistence of human life under these 

 conditions. He described numerous specialised superstitions ; 

 especially the impulse to establish cults on high peaks, and 

 the belief in diseinbodied spirits, leading to a variety of 

 precautions to prevent their interference. In the discussion 

 which followed. Dr. Beddoe pointed out that Tibet, which 

 was the highest average altitude in the world, was the only 

 place in which real theocracy existed, and that the shepherds in 

 remote parts of Australia often became demented because they 

 were so much alone. Dr. Francis Galton thought it would be 

 worth while to observe the behaviour of animals in high alti- 

 tudes. Prof. Tylor suggested that some attention might also be 

 directed to the collection of literature dealing with this subject. 

 Mr. C. H. Read regarded the object exhibited by Mr. Howarth 

 as a purely natural production, not a manufactured implement. 

 Dr. G. A. Dorsey and Dr. J. G. Garson continued the discussion. 

 Mr. Howarth briefly replied. 



Miss M. A. Ellis presented a note on the human ear as a 

 means of identification, stating that ears do not change shape 

 after childhood, and classifying the great varieties of shape by 

 marking oft' the helix into five divisions. Various types of ears 

 were exhibited, and a brief discussion followed. 



Mr. K. Minakata's paper on Tabu in Japan was read in 

 abstract. 



Mr. G. Leith read an important paper on a large and varied 

 collection of stone implements from South Africa, describing 

 the situation and characteristics of the bushmen's haunts, in 

 some of which were found implements and other signs of occu- 

 pation, just as they had been left years ago ; and remarking 

 upon the various types of stone implements which are found 

 both in the cave deposit, and in the talus in front of the cave. 

 With these poisoned arrows the bushmen were a dangerous 

 enemy to the Boers, even when the latter were equipped with 

 firearms. The investigation of Lighthouse Cave, at Cape St. 

 Blaize, led to the discovery of many fine specimens of skinning 

 knives, scrapers, and flaked implements, indicating that it had been 

 a place for the manufacture of these implements for many ages. 

 Alluding to his researches in various beds of gravel at various 

 altitudes in which he discovered large numbers of palreolithic 

 stone implements of very remarkable size and shape, he classified 

 the latter, according to their position, into neolithic or modern, 

 palceolithic or ancient, and eolithic. The evidence of these 

 gravels proved without doubt, in his opinion, that South Africa 

 was the home of man at a very remote period of history. The 

 eoliths found there corresponded exactly with the plateau imple- 

 ments found on the Kentish Weald by Mr. Harrison. Prof. 

 Dawkins did not think that the evidence was clear as to their 

 belonging to the Gravel ages, and had no doubt that he could 

 find a parallel from North America for the specimens produced. 

 Mr. F. T. Elworthy described a number of Roman symbolic 

 hands from Pompeii and elsewhere, of the kind known as Mono 

 Panlea : contending that these hands are not votive offerings, 

 but in fact the Roman Penates. Mr. A. J. Evans and Mr. E. S. 

 Hartland pointed out that these hands all belong to the late 

 heterogeneous cults of the early empire, and have no connection 

 with the indigenous family cults of Italy. Mr. J. L. Myres 

 described other examples exhibited in the British Mu.seum, one 

 of which bears a definitely votive inscription. Bishop Brownlow 

 commented on the Christian benedictory use of the gesture 

 represented in these pre-Chri.stian hands. 



Mr. H. Warington Smyth described the river craft in use 

 among the Siamese, explaining the construction of the " dug- 

 out " Me Kawng boats, and discussing the various native types. 

 To this was appended a brief description of the simple fourteen- 

 reed instrument in use among the Lao of the Me Kawng Valley, 

 illustrated by an example of this characteristic and monotonous 

 music. 



On Friday, September 9, after the President's address. 

 Dr. Beddoe gave a summary account of the medieval 

 population of Bristol, based on two series of skulls, the one 

 medinival, the other probably of the eighteenth century, dis- 

 interred on the occasion of the removal of St. Werburgh's 

 church, and on certain lists of .surnames of various dates. He 

 found the mediaeval skulls very generally small, short and 

 broad (cephalic index 8o'o), while the later ones exhibited the 

 same long types that characterise the present population of 



NO. 1520, VOL. 59] 



