NA TURE 



[December 26, 1907 



period of secular elevation, accompanied by faulting on an 

 extensive stale. Gradual uprise of the land was continued 

 practically into modern times." An epoch of extensive 

 gUu'iatioii, with the formation of an ice-sheet in the basin 

 of Boulder Lake, then opened in Pliocene or post- 

 Pliocene times (p. 22). Especial attention is directed in 

 this bulletin to the immense deposits of limonite iron-ore 

 associated in the district with an ancient series of 

 carbonate rocks. The ore is ascribed to the decay of iron 

 pyrites, and to the reaction of the resulting ferrous sulphate 

 on the carbonates. The ferrous carbonate has finally been 

 altered to limonite, probably as a surface-phenomenon ; 

 but the resulting ores occur on a vast scale, highly 

 encouraging for their future prospects (pp. 75-88). 



The Bureau of Science of the Government of the Philip- 

 pine Islands is responsible for the admirably produced 

 Philippine Journal of Science, an example to our Govern- 

 ment printers in India, or perhaps an example of the 

 disparity of the funds oflicially devoted in the two countries 

 to scientific publications. In vol. ii., No. 4 (Manila, 

 August, 1907), Mr. A. J. Eveland describes the geology and 

 geography of the Baguio mineral district. Here again, 

 in the island of Luzon, we find an old crystalline basis, 

 marine Eocene (?) and Miocene beds laid down upon it, 

 and then an epoch of elevation and denudation. The 

 Miocene limestone is cut through by the present Bued 

 River vallev, which reaches down to the basal diorite 

 (Fig. 2). ' G. A. J. C. 



ARCHJEOLOGY IN AMERICAN 



'X'HE first part of the second volume of the Trans- 

 -'■ actions of the Universitv of Pennsylvania's Depart- 

 ment of Archaeology, Free Museum of Science and Art (it 

 is a pity that this cumbrous title cannot be simplified), 

 contains' the usual instalment of articles on Cretan and 

 Mexican archaeology, with interesting contributions by Mr. 

 G. B. Gordon on the western Eskimo of Alaska and on 

 an engraved bone from Ohio, the decoration of which is 

 very Mexican in character. The author of the article on 

 Mexican archa:ology, Miss Adela Breton, draws interest- 

 ing analogies between the Mexican conventional represent- 

 ations of serpents and the dragons of Chino-Japanese art. 

 There certainly seems to be some connection, however it 

 may be explained. The explanation, when it arrives, will, 

 however, be a genuine one, and not on the lines of the 

 late Mr. Donnelly's " Atlantis," with its curious com- 

 parisons of Maya signs with " Egyptian hieroglyphics," 

 most of which had no real existence. It is a pity that 

 the investigation of possible connections between Mexican 

 culture and those of the rest of the world has been so 

 seriously discredited by the " Atlantis " idea. Miss 

 Breton's description of the Xochicalco temple is interesting 

 reading. 



Mr. Gordon describes, among other " ploys " of the 

 Eskimo, their elaborate cat's-cradle games. From a 

 personal trial we cannot say that his recipes for their 

 production are as clearly put as they might be. The 

 photographs of these Eskimo which Mr. Gordon publishes 

 show a Mongol rather than American type; plate v., 2, 

 might, but for the eyes being rather too deeply set, be 

 a Japanese. 



The Cretan contribution is a good article on " The 

 Decorative Art of Crete in the Bronze Age," by Miss 

 Edith H. Hall, who worked at Gourni^ with Miss Boyd 

 (Mrs. Hawes). As a succinct description of the most 

 striking characteristics of the succeeding " Minoan " 

 periods of Cretan artistic development it is very useful, 

 and supplements Dr. Evans's " Essai de Classification " 

 and Dr. Mackenzie's articles on pottery in the " Journal 

 of Hellenic Studios " and the " Annals of the British School 

 at Athens." In tone Miss Hall is perhaps just a trifle 

 too dogmatic, and dismisses the opinions of others (e.g. 

 Messrs. Hogarth and Welch once or twice) too summarily. 

 On Egyptian matters, too, she is inclined to regard as 

 certain what those who deal with Egyptian things at first- 



1 University of Pennsylvania : Trans.ictinns of llie Department of Archa;- 

 oloey. Free Museum of Science and Art, vo'. ii., tiart i. Pp. 105 ; 2q plates. 

 (Philadelphl.i : Published by the Department of Archaology, 1906.) Price 

 I dollar. 



NO. 1 99 1, VOL. y/] 



hand know to be thoroughly uncertain. The later system 

 of Egyptian dates is adopted (p. 12) from Prof. Breastcd's 

 history with hardly a qualm, in spite of the fact that it 

 is not yet accepted by Petrie, Maspero, von Bissing, or 

 Budge (to give only the most prominent names). There 

 are growing reasons in favour of it, true ; but equally 

 there are most serious considerations to be urged against 

 it. To talk doginatically of the Vlth Dynasty as ending 

 " in 2475 B.C." (the italics are mine), or the Xllth as 

 dating " from 2000 to 1788 B.C.," is absurd, though Miss 

 Hall is not responsible for the absurdity. 



Also, Miss Hall makes the usual mistake of the Greek 

 arch;cologist, a mistake which we had occasion to correct 

 in the case of her colleague Mr. Seager last year, in per- 

 sistently regarding all Egyptian representations of plants, 

 flowers, and so forth, as stiff and conventional. They 

 are not invariably so, as a study of plant designs on 

 XVIIIth Dynasty pottery from Deir el-Bahari and else- 

 where shows ; it is these, and not the formal dadoes of 

 papyrus plants in wall paintings, that we must compare 

 with the plant designs of the Cretan artists. Miss Hall's 

 Fig. 29 is quoted as a Cretan " adaptation of the lotus 

 clumps of Egyptian art. Here the method of arranging 

 the flowers," she says, " is the same as in Egyptian art, 

 yet every trace of Egyptian stiffness is gone." I could 

 quote several examples of Egyptian representations of 

 flowers that are far less stiff and formal than this Cretan 

 one. The designs of Figs. 35, 48, and 49 could all be 

 paralleled on Egyptian pottery. 



Miss Hall's classificatory table of " Cretan Bronze Age 

 Design " is very useful as a conspectus of the chief 

 examples of the designs of the " Minoan " periods. 



H. R. Hall. 



THE PELYCOSAURIAW UEVlll.KS.' 



A LMOST exactly thirty years ago the late Prof. Cope 

 ■^ brought to the notice of the scientific world remains 

 of certain remarkable carnivorous reptiles from the Permian 

 strata of Texas, for which he proposed the group-name 

 Pelycosauria. The group was regarded as a suborder of 

 the Rhynchocephalia, and was provisionally taken to in- 

 clude the theriodont reptiles of South Africa. Among the 

 more typical representatives of the pelycosaurs are 

 Dimetrodon and Naosaurus, extraordinary reptiles in which 

 the dorsal spines of the trunk vertebra are so enormously 

 elongated (sometimes with the addition of transverse pro- 

 jections) that they e.xceed in height the depth of the body 

 below them. Restorations of both the skeleton and the 

 external form have now rendered these creatures familiar 

 even to the man in the street. 



.As to the systematic position of these reptiles and their 

 kindred, considerable diversity of view has obtained. By 

 many writers they are classed with the theriodont 

 anornodonts, but this, according to modern ideas, is 

 altogether unjustifiable, the structure of the temporal 

 arches in the two groups being different. Dr. Case there- 

 fore reverts to the original view that pelycosaurs form a 

 primitive section of the rhynchocephalians. 



The group is of special interest as illustrating, perhaps 

 better than any other, the rapid evolution from a 

 generalised type to a complex organisation that may have 

 been the potential cause of early extinction, the life of 

 these reptiles being coterminous with the duration of the 

 Permian epoch. Why these specialised structures were 

 evolved within such a comparatively short time is a sub- 

 ject upon which we can only conjecture. Carnivorous in 

 habit, and easily masters of their contemporaries, these 

 reptiles, Mr. Case suggests, may have developed their 

 spines from mere exuberance of growth from a utilitarian 

 beginning, but that these structures eventually became 

 useless cannot be doubted. 



That pelycosaurs existed outside of North America is 

 proved by the occurrence of Naosaurus in the Permian of 

 Bohemia and of Stereorhachis in that of France, while 

 certain reptiles from central Germany may also belong to 

 the group. On the other hand, they are unknown in South 



1 "Revision of the Pelycosauria of North America." By F.. C. Case 

 Puhlication No. 55. Pp. 176+35 plates. (Carnegie Institution, Washington, 

 DC, 1907.) 



