14 
NATURE 
[May 6, 1886 
cumstance connected with the discovery of each is known. The 
Barrows, from which the collection was made, are found mostly 
in Yorkshire, although other places are also represented. In 
the same room will also be placed the implements used in work- 
ing flint quarries in prehistoric times, and other objects found 
there ; there will also be some curious implements from countries | 
where the Stone Agestill exists, as it does, in a certain measure, 
in Madeira, Syria, and Iceland. The room on the right will be 
given up to iron objects, and those of an age which may be called 
semi-prehistoric, such as the Roman times in Britain. 
A SUPERFICIAL examination of the ethnographical galleries in 
the British Museum shows that the American section is over- 
crowded. On the left are the American antiquities, which are 
of the greatest interest, but which do not seem to belong properly 
to ethnography at all, while the objects on the left, belonging to 
modern America, and which are certainly ethnographical, are | 
crowded into a space which is quite insufficient. As much has 
been done as possible to arrange the objects, and there is no 
confusion, but it is quite impossible to examine the cases properly 
when they contain so much. Ancient Mexico, Peru, and New 
Granada crowd modern South, North-West, and Arctic America 
into a very small space. It is obvious that an attempt should 
‘be made to remove the American antiquities to some more suit- 
able place, and to give up the whole of the gallery to American 
ethnography proper. 
AFRICA does not seem so well represented in the Collection as it 
might be fora country which has sent its missionaries and travel- 
lers into every corner of the land. Two or three small South Sea 
Islands occupy about as much space as the continent of Africa. 
The only district well represented is that of the Upper Nile, the 
collection of Lupton Bey being specially noteworthy, as giving one 
a fair idea of the manufacturing industries of the people of these 
parts. South Africa is moderately well represented, and in a 
less degree northern West Africa. East Africa, Central Africa, 
and southern West Africa are all relegated to a small case and 
very poorly represented. A spear from one tribe lies beside a pipe 
or a dagger from another tribe a thousand miles distant. And 
yet in this enormous region there are tribes singularly expert as 
blacksmiths, potters, &c. No African tribe produces more 
beautiful spears than the Wa-Vira, more horridly barbed than 
those of Nyassa, or more remarkable than those of Maryema or 
of Masai-land ; and yet good collections of all these are un- 
doubtedly in the country. Owing to this meagre display the 
collection is not of much value for purposes of comparison or to 
illustrate the relative advancement of the various tribes in arts 
and manufactures, and yet in this respect there is as much differ- 
ence between the most degraded of the tribes and the most 
civilised as there is between the latter and ourselves. 
arrangement also leaves much to be desired. Articles manufac- 
tured by tribes totally distinct in race, degree of civilisation, and 
religion are thrown indiscriminately together. Take, for instance, 
northern West Africa. There one finds the fetishes, idols, and 
rudely-worked articles of the degraded and barbarous tribes of 
the Lower Niger figuring amongst the artistic and advanced 
productions, of the Mohammedan and polished tribes of the 
Central Sudan, and nothing to indicate that they are not the 
work of one people. In the East African section, again, you 
find Somali weapons beside those of the Bantu tribes further 
south, such as the Wa-gogo. Some objects do not appear to be 
correctly named. Thus the backbone of a shield divested of 
the hide which it was intended to support now figures as a bow, 
a string having been stretched from point to point. The map 
to illustrate Africa is scarcely worthy of the British Museum. 
The Congo Basin is strikingly shown by an utter blank. 
From the Royal Gardens, Kew, we have received a cheap, 
carefully arranged, and highly useful guide to Museum No. ILI. 
at that establishment, which is devoted chiefly to specimens of 
The | 
timber and other large articles unsuited for exhibition in the 
glazed cases of the other museum. Another extremely useful 
publication is a Route Map of the Royal Botanic Garden and 
Arboretum on a scale quite large enough to enable any visitor to 
find his way. The various sections of the gardens are clearly 
laid down, and on the back is an index to the various entrances, 
museums, houses, the arboretum, &c., corresponding to the 
sections in the map indicated by figures and letters. 
A MICROSCOPICAL Soctery has been started in Glasgow with 
Dr. Dallinger as first President ; over fifty members have been 
enrolled. 
THE volcano of Smeru in Jaya is stated to be 
eruption. 
in 
WE have received the first number of Zhe Zndian Engineer, 
published by Messrs. Newman and Co., Limited, Calcutta. 
This is a new publication, the object being to provide a repre- 
sentative organ for all branches of the Indian engineering pro- 
fession, and to make it a creditable representative of the great 
engineering and scientific services of the country. The leading 
article appropriately gives a history of Indian engineering journal- 
ism. We are told that the first publication of the kind was made 
by the Corps of the Madras Engineers in the form of a series 
cf papers, to provide a record of the experience of their mem- 
bers for future reference. Messrs. Newman and Co., twenty- 
eight years ago, followed this first attempt by publishing a paper 
| called Zhe Engineers’ Fournal and Railway and Public Works 
Chronic/e. Since then seyeral different papers have been 
issued with varying success. Zhe /ndian Engineer is nicely 
got up and well printed, and, to judge by the first number, will 
prove to be an interesting journal, containing as it does many very 
good articles on general Indian engineering, civil and mechani- 
cal. We trust it will receive general support, and in time 
become an acknowledged organ of the profession in India, 
WE are pleased to see from the current number of the Agri- 
cultural Students’ Gazette that the authorities of the Royal Agri- 
cultural College, Cirencester, have provided greater facilities 
for teaching the increasingly important branch of agriculture, 
dairy farming. A new working dairy has been erected and 
fitted with appliances of the most improved kinds. We notice 
also that further substantial accommodation has been made for 
out-students. The Gaze/fe contains a description of the new 
buildings and an account of the College live stock; the dairy 
herd contains specimens of nine breeds, and the specimen flock 
of fifteen different breeds. An article by Mr. J. M. Muir- 
| McKenzie, on cultivation in the Western Ghats, gives a descrip- 
tion of the prevalent method of cultivation in this part of the 
Bombay Presidency, by means of wood ash and vaé ; this style 
of native agriculture entails the destruction of much jungle and 
denudation of the hills to the detriment of the low lands; it 
raises various difficulties between the natives and the forest and 
other officials, and any attempt to grasp its scientific and economic 
bearings is worth careful attention. 
Unper the title of ‘* Malvera Field Hand-book and Naturalist’s 
Calendar,” Mr. G. E. Mackie, Assistant Master in Malvern 
College, has published a little volume that will be useful both to 
residents and visitors. The Hand-book was originally begun for 
the use of the boys of the Malvern College Field Club, but has 
been much enlarged. 
Mr. THomas WARDLE, of Leek, has been to India to 
examine the cultivation of the silkworm (Soméyx mort) there, 
and the methods still in use of reeling the silk, Although the 
reputation of Bengal silk has gone down greatly during the last 
twenty-five years, yet microscopical examination satisfied him 
that the fibre of the Indian silk was quite equal to that of - 
Italian, and that improvement in the machinery and method of 
