552 



NA TURE 



\^April lo, 1884 



supernatural causes. In this way when Ch'en Kwah met 

 in the course of his investigations with flint and bronze 

 implements he at once adopted the common opinion of 

 his countrymen, which is the same as that which was 

 prevalent in Emope a couple of centuries ago, that they 

 were thunderbolts shot down by the God of Thunder in 

 the explosions of his wrath. In confirmation of this 

 theory Ch'en states that though these implements are 

 found all over the country they are more plentiful in dis- 

 tricts, such as Lui-chow in the province of Canton, where 

 thunderstorms arc more than usually prevalent. In shape, 

 he tells us, they resemble axes, knives, small hammers 

 several pounds in weight, skewers or nails, and other 

 pointed implements. In colour they vary, some being 

 yellow, some green, and some black. Some of the axe- 

 shaped stones are bored with two holes, but the majority 

 are not pierced, and implements of the same shape are 

 found in bronze and iron. 



Speaking within his own knowledge he only describes 

 the circumstances of the discovery of two stone axes, both 

 of which he tells us were found beneath trees. In one 

 case, at Sin-chow, in Hupeh, after a severe thunderstorm 

 in which, like Prospero, the God of Thunder had 



" rifted Jove's stout oak, 

 With his own bolt," 



a stone axe was found at its roots ; and on another occa" 

 sion at Sui-chow, under precisely similar circumstances, 

 a shepherd-lad found a " fire stone in the shape of an 

 axe." As in the only two cases about which Ch'cn 

 speaks from personal knowledge the axes were found 

 beneath trees, it is not unnatural to suppose that they are 

 more frequently found in that position than elsewhere ; 

 and this be;omes interesting when we find it stated by 

 Mr. Rivett Carnac in a valuable paper published in 

 vol. lii. of the Proceedings of the Bengal Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, that it is the custom in Central 

 India for the finder of a stone axe or other stone imple- 

 ment to place it " under the village pipul tree," and some- 

 times to sanctify it with a daub of red paint, and thus to 

 constitute it a Mahadeo. A somewhat sunilar practice 

 exists, according to Chinese historians, in a country 

 vaguely described as being to the west of the Yuh Pass 

 in Chinese Turkestan, where "thunder stones" when 

 found are deposited in the temples. May not this Indian 

 practice have also been the custom ofsomeof the aboriginal 

 tribes of China ? and may not the fact that in the two in- 

 stances mentioned above the axes were found at the roots 

 of riven trees be evidence of the antiquity of the custom, 

 as in cases described by Mr. Rivett Carnac, in which 

 the rjots of the trees and the surrounding soil had in 

 course of years so completely grown over the axes that 

 they could only be cut and dug out with difficulty ? 



Stone arrow-heads do not seem to have come within 

 Ch'cn's range of observation, although from historical 

 references we know that they are to be met with in China. 

 In the " Book of History," which is said to ha\'e been com- 

 piled by Confucius, mention is made of tribute, consisting 

 of iron, silver, steel, and stone arrow heads, having been 

 presented to the Chinese Court by the tribes on the Yellow 

 River about the year 2200 B.C. The story is told also 

 that on one occasion, as the Prince of Ch'en (495 B.C.) 

 was walking in the palace grounds, a bird fell dead at his 

 feet, pierced through by a stone-headed arrow. As the 

 kind of bird was unknown to the prince and his courtiers, 

 Confucius was called in to give his opinion upon it. The 

 b rd he pronounced to be a species of sparrow-hawk from 

 Northern Tartary, and he explained t at the stone head 

 which pointed the dart was similar to that which Wu 

 Wang (EC. 1 1 22) presented to his prince. It appears 

 als ) that stone arrow-heads were used in :.ncient times as 

 emblems of authority, and that they have very commonly 

 been presented to sovereigns as objects of curiosity and 

 value. 



The biographical dictionaries tell us that in course of 

 his official duties Ch'en was called upon to direct exten- 

 sive irrigating works ; and no doubt the excavations and 

 cuttings which he then superintended led him to take an 

 interest in the fossil remains with which the country 

 abounds. On this subject he has many notes. In one 

 he tells us that at a certain spot on the Yellow River, the 

 banks having fallen away for a considerable distance, a 

 fossil bamboo grove was disclosed, a fact which excited 

 his surprise, as the district is not one in which bamboos 

 grow at the present day, and he contrasts with this the 

 fossil peach-stones, roots of rushes, snakes and crabs, 

 which are found at the Kin-hwa Mountain, all of which 

 things are still indigenous in the neighbourhood. At 

 Tsch-chow in Shansi, he states, a man, when digging a 

 well, suddenly unearthed a "lizard resembling a dragon." 

 At sight of the monster the man fled in terror, but ob- 

 serving from a distance that it remained motionless, he 

 ventured to return, when, to his relief, he found that it 

 was petrified. Philistine-like, his neighbours broke it to 

 pieces, and only one bit of it was preserved. Another 

 kind of fossil has long been a puzzle to the philosophers, 

 from the great and wise emperor, K'ang-hi (1661-1720), 

 downwards. Adventurous travellers who have braved 

 the northern frosts have from time to time brought back 

 accounts of the mammoths which are found in the frozen 

 cliffs of Siberia. Deceived by a mistaken analogy, the 

 Chinese wiseacres have arrived at the conclusion that 

 these monsters must be huge ivory-producing rats, and, 

 misinterpreting their continued preservation, have formed 

 the opinion that darkness is necessary to their life, and 

 that exposure to the outer air produces instant death. 

 Their ivory is considered to be softer than elephant ivory, 

 and in the hands of skilful chemists their flesh is said to 

 make up into a highly invigorating tonic. 



Speaking of the neighbourhood of the Loh River, Ch'en 

 mentions the discovery of ancient Troglodyte dwellings 

 in which were found coins, and in one case a stone chest 

 bearing on the outside fine tracings of flowers, birds, and 

 other objects. On the lid were inscribed upwards of 

 twenty characters, which were of such an archaic form 

 that they were undecipherable. But the contents were 

 easily understood, and were at once recognised as pieces 

 of pure gold. 



Constant msntion is made by Ch'en of meteoric 

 stones, which in popular imagination are said to assume 

 various strange and uncanny forms. Of the descent of 

 one such stone which fell in the province of Kiang-su 

 in the )ear 1064, he gives certain particulars on the 

 authority of a Mrs. Heu. This lady, when in her garden 

 one day, was startle! by an explosion like a peal of 

 thunder, and saw a large "star nearly as big as the 

 moon " piss across the sky from south-east to south-west, 

 and eventually fall within a few yards of the place where 

 she was standing. On going to the spot she observed a 

 deep hole, at the bottom of which was the "star shining 

 brightly.'' By degrees the light died away, and even- 

 tually at a depth of three feet slie dug up a round stone 

 of the size of a man's fist, and of the weight and appear- 

 ance of iron. Altogether Chen's work is well worthy of 

 the study of those who can read Chinese and who are 

 interested in the palajontology of China. 



Robert K. Douglas 



ON THE FORMATION OF STARCH IN 

 LEA VES 

 T N a recent communication to i\\t AflieiUn des botan- 

 -'- isches Iiistiltit in Wiirzburg (Bd. iii.), Prof. Sachs 

 gives the results of his work during the past summer in 

 connection with the above subject. The investigations 

 were made with the object of determining the formation 

 and disappearance of starch in the leaves of plants grow- 

 ing in the open, and under normal conditions of vegeta- 



