Jiily ir, 1872 J 



NATURE 



See, and his brother C. Ecilitiiis Mamertus seems to have been 

 closely connected with it ; indeed, lie seems to have composed 

 music for tlie clioir. We are warranted in conjecturing that tliis 

 family must have had intimate relations with that of Avitus. 

 The name of the author of tlie Homily is A. Ecdicius Avitus ; 

 Sidonius ApoUinaris was son-in-law of the Emperor Avitus, 

 and his intimacy and correspondence with "Lord Patriarch 

 Mamertus " confinn the supposition. 



We have seen that M. M. Avitus went to Rome as Emperor, 

 A.D. 455. The first time we hear of Mamertus as Bishop of 

 Vienne is A. D. 463. What, then, is the probability of the fol- 

 lowing facts ? 



When Avitus went to Rome, he took with him many of his 

 intimate friends and connections, and among them St. Mamer- 

 tus. He obtained for Mamertus some Italian See, of which the 

 principal town was situate at no great distance from Vesuvius. 

 It was walled, had a large forum, and was partly inhabited by 

 the nobility of the country. Upon the expulsion of his patron, 

 Mamertus exchanged to the See of Vienne, or obtained that See 

 by some other means. During the short time he was in Italy 

 he witnessed those earthquakes and showers of ashes described 

 in the letter and the Homily. 



Assuming these facts, how will they agree mth the statements 

 in these documents, and with the known history of Vesuvius ? 



It is clear, from the letter of Sidonius, that the reason why 

 the people of Auvergne observed the Rogations was not the 

 fear of earthquakes, but of the incursions of the Goths, against 

 whose advances they formed the chief barrier ; they lived in the 

 midst of the "surrounding terrors," yet Sidonius himself had to 

 make mtjuiries and get information (SciscifatiS) in order to 

 become acquainted with the volcanic phenomena : he nowhere 

 says that "the city divinely committed to Mamertus" was 

 Vienne, and all the circumstances ai-e connected with Mamertus 

 personally, and with a town only through him. 



St. Avitus succeeded his father A. n. 490, and died A D. 

 525. At what precise date he wrote the Homily I suppose is 

 unknown ; it may, perhaps, have been written before he was 

 liishop. The date of his birtli seems to be unknown, but he 

 may very well have been old enough to have been with his fatlier 

 in Italy, and as a youth have witnessed the phenomena that were 

 seen by Mamertus ; and in the congregation that listened to the 

 Homily, there may still have been " nrany " who had been there 

 also (with the army ?), and had also seen them. 



The words "at that time" mean that the earthquakes, &c., 

 occurred at the same time with the attacks of the Goths on the 

 inhabitants of Auvergne and Vienne. 



One astonishing circumstance is tliat the Rogations, though 

 instituted (in Gaul .at least) by Mamertus, s.iy between 456 and 

 463, had already obtained in "nearly the whole world ;" evi- 

 dently no such rapid and wide extension could be due to the 

 fear of earthquakes ; but it is easily understood, if they were 

 considered to be a protection ag.ainst the attacks of barbarians ; 

 the time of their celebration shortly before Whitsuntide would, 

 I suppose, be about the time of preparation for the usual sum- 

 mer campaign. 



But how account for a Bishop of Vienne instituting at Vienne 

 a ceremony which is alleged to have been occasioned by events 

 that happened in Italy ? Thus : — Mamertus, who had no pre- 

 vious knowledge of volcanic action, would be greatly struck by 

 what he saw ; and even to the Italians these manifestations were 

 probably a novelty. Vesuvius had been comparatively quiet for 

 200 years, and these (by hypothesis) were among the first inti- 

 mations of that renewed fury which reached its climax in 472, 

 and is mentioned by Procopius (I have no access to his work).* 



Struck with terror, the idea of tlie Rogations occurred to lum 

 while in Italy, possibly he may have instituted them there ; Ijut 

 it agrees better with the claim of Vienne to suppose that before 

 he had the opportunity of carrying out his idea, he found himself 

 again in Vienne, and first instituted them there, not against 

 earthquakes, but against the barbarians. 



The two things together, the earthquakes and the wars, 

 suggested to him the possible approacli of the awful time indi- 

 cated by Christ (Matt. xxiv. 15) — "Cum ergo videritis abomi- 

 nationem desolationis," &c. ; hence the " abominabilia " and the 

 "doom of desolation " of the Homily. The "magna tribu- 

 latio" would well agree with the constant wars, and the "in- 

 effable distress " occasioned by them. 



Norwich, June 5 HENRY Norton 



* \ few d.ays after writing this I read the passage in Procopius, and_ found 

 that he expressly attribute* ths institution of Rogations to the action of 

 Vesuvius. 



The Wanderings of the Esquimaux 



It is very gratifying to find that Mr. Howorth, whilst holding 

 the position he has taken up with augmented force, has ac- 

 cepted, in the same l;indly spirit in which they were written, the 

 observations on the migrations of the Esquimaux which I was 

 led to make after reading his very excellent letter in Nature of 

 May 9. 



Mr. Howorth now brings forward the language of the Esqui- 

 maux in support of his views. This may be a strong point, 

 although, if I remember rightly, one or two distinguished ethno- 

 logists think differently. As for myself, having little or no 

 knowledge of languages, I can express no opinion one way or 

 other. . 



Open as I am and shall be to conviction, and ready to give 

 up my opinion cheerfully if proved wrong, I find that so far, 

 the able arguments brought forward by Mr. Howorth have not 

 in the slightest degree unsettled my belief in the truth of the 

 Esquimaux tradition, communicated through interpreters whose 

 competence I proved in a very satisfactory manner, at the same 

 time that I ascertained the reliability to be placed on informa- 

 tion transmitted from one to another by the Esquimaux. This 

 I did by comparing information given by the natives of Repulse 

 Bay, through my interpreter, with portions of the narratives of 

 Arctic explorers of distinction (with which it agreed very 

 closely) written in the one case more than twenty, and in the 

 other more than thirty years before ; of course neither the Esqui- 

 maux nor the interpreter knew what was in these narratives. 



Mr. Howorth quotes numerous authorities, and I have no 

 doubt does it so correctly that there is no necessity to look them 

 up. These I shall now endeavour to answer, and as nearly as 

 possible in the order in which they appear in his letter. 



I do not think that the fact of the " Arctic Highlanders " build- 

 ing "stone igloos instead of snow huts," or their "ignorance of 

 boats, either kayaks or oomiKks," makes any "broad distinc- 

 tion" between these people and the "American Esquimaux." 



In the far west, that is, from Behring Strait to the Mackenzie 

 River, the Esquimaux live in wooden houses during winter, 

 probably because driftwood is abundant. They also have bo'.h 

 kayaks and oomiaks. 



As you go eastward and get near the Coppermine River, 

 snow-huts form the winter shelter, probably because little or no 

 wood is to be found, and a stone house without fuel to make a 

 fire, is, as I know by experience, much colder and more com- 

 fortless than a snow-house under the same circumstances. The 

 food of these natives is principally reindeer, musk cattle, and 

 fish, with some seals, but neither whales nor walrus, as far as I 

 could learn, to give fat for fuel. Here, also, the oomiak or 

 large luggage boat disappears, it may be because the Esquimaux 

 are less numerous, more scattered, and live in smaller com- 

 munities, and do not require it. Another reason may be that 

 the sea is more ice-encumbered. The kayak is, however, still 

 in use, and when it is requisite to transport a family or a heavy 

 load across water, two or more of these are fastened together, 

 poles or paddles laid across them, and thus a kind of platform is 

 constructed, which will carry very considerable weights in perfect 

 safety. 



This state of things prevails as far eastward as the great Fish 

 River. Boothia, Gulf Committee, Repulse and Hudson Bays, but 

 as the Esquimaux travelled northward to latitudes 76' and 77° by 

 the route I have supposed them to do, as described in a former 

 letter, the difficulty of building kayaks would be increased in 

 consequence of scarcity of wood to make the frames.* The 

 necessity for them would also become less, as the sea became less 

 free from ice, and if, as I suppose, they chiefly hunted and lived 

 upon reindeer and musk cattle. The usual season for killing 

 seals is before the ice breaks up, so no kayak is required for that 

 purpose. 



From the description given me ol the numerous " moss-grown 

 ruins of deserted huts " seen near Smith Sound and on the Parry 

 Islands, I am led to believe that many of them were not dwelling 

 places at all, but the ruins of large stone "caches," such as are 

 found in many places on the shores of America, where the 

 natives have collected a quantity of provisions, round which 

 stones are built in a very solid manner as a protection against 

 the a'tack of the fox, the wolf, their own dogs, and, worst of 

 all, the wolverine. 



Let me now say a few words about the Arctic Highlanders of 



* In 1846 the Esquimaux of Repulse Bay had plenty of wood, but in 1854 

 many of them, who had been hoarding up seal skins for the purpose, could 

 not build kayaks, because they had no wood to make the frames of. 



