5 6 4 



NATURE 



[October 26, 191 1 



Fortescue, the Bishop of Exeter, Lord Clifford of Chud- 



Devon Education Committi e, and 



riff ol 1 tetet all Followed in the same vein. 



I ited out by the Mayor and by the 



principal, the college has been hampered and hindered in 

 1 by several causes. First anion;; these was the 

 in.-uii . 1 1 1 . 1 1 • ■ accommodation of the- old class-rooms and 

 labi.iaiL.iii~. This difficulty is no more, for the new build- 

 ings supply all that is essential for the needs of the present 

 and for several years to come. The other difficulties have 

 been acutely felt from time to time, especially when the 

 commissioners from the Treasury have inspected the 

 college. It had no permanent endowment fund, no long 

 isl oi ubscribers, and no considerable financial backing 

 scept from the citj and citizens of Exeter itself. 

 At the meeting on Friday the governors were able to 

 announce that they are making an attempt to raise an 

 ndowment fund of at least 30,000/., and the preliminary 



physics. This will be provided for in the York wing, 

 opened in [899 during the visit ol the King and Queen when 

 Duki and Duchi >s of York. The whole of this wing will 



now be devoted to pi 1! cience, except for one room 



allocated to geology. 



AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 

 \ BOUT the year 1S95 Major J. W. Powell, director of 

 1 the Bureau oi American Hthnology, decided to prepare 

 a linguistii map ol that part of North America south of the 

 Mexican boundary. This important work was. after the 

 death of Major Powell, taken over by Drs. Cyrus Thomas 

 and J. R. Swanton, who have now published the results 

 in the -14th Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

 1 in m repi 1 detailed catalogue of the dialects in 

 use throughout M tico and Central America. Of particular 

 interest is the evid now provided, which corroborates 



ty College, Exeter. 



list already reached more than one-tenth of that sum. It 

 seems certain that when the next inspection takes plao 

 the University College will be able to give a very different 

 account of its position. 



The buildings opened on October 20 represent the first 

 "I a complete scheme for which the site has 

 been secured, as funds do not at present admit of the 

 erection of a great hall or of a wing to give m 

 accommodation for the fine art, applied art, technical and 

 technological departments. 



The front portion of the new wing contains chemical 

 laboratories and lecture theatre, a common room for women 

 students, six class-rooms and lecture-rooms for mathe- 

 matics, classics, history, English, and modern langi 

 the biological laboratory and lecture-room, and nun 

 the principal, professors, and staff. Behind this lii 

 day training college. There is no new provision for 



NO. 2 ig I, VOL. 87] 



the conclusion already arrived at that the linguistic elements 

 of South America, at the time of the Spanish conquest, ex- 

 tended into the southern sections of Central America ; and 

 now for the first time the ethnical lino dividing North and 

 South America has been provisionally determined. This 

 ■ !i is admitted not to be a final work, but an 

 attempt to represent the present state of knowledge regard- 

 ing a subject u hi. h may never be cleared entirely of 

 obscurity. 



1 1 is a remarkable fact that the Cliff Palace in the Musa 

 Verde National Park, Colorado, the largest, most pic- 

 turesque, and most typical cliff-dwelling in the south-western 

 States, so long escaped the knowledge of white settlers in 

 the neighbourin: 1 Valley. It is not mentioned 



h Spanish writings, and the first description of it 

 was not published until about 1S80. The classical account 

 .if these ruins is that by Baron Nordenskiold in his "Cliff 



