244 



NA TURE 



{Jan. 13, 1887 



to obtain for them the ebony sea-otter trimming to 

 their dainty sealskin sacques. These otters would seem 

 to be on the eve of extirpation, so ruthlessly are they 

 hunted and destroyed. All the world's supply comes 

 from the North Pacific and Bering Sea. The chase 

 and capture of the otter furnish the only employment 

 possible for several thousands of the semi-civilised natives 

 of Alaska, so that the destruction of this trade would be 

 very disastrous to the hunters. 



The chapter on the great Aleutian Chain tells us of the 

 volcanic island of Oonimak, the cone-shaped crater of 

 Shishaldin, and Oonalashka Island, with its smoking 

 volcano of Makooshin. The chief interest of the volume 

 centres, however, in the chapters relating to the wonder- 

 ful Seal Islands, and on the modes of capture of the 

 seals, and on their habits. The Pribylov Islands of 

 Bering Sea were discovered just a century ago by 

 Pribylov, the commander of a Russian sloop. He called 

 them Subov Islands, but the Russians seem unanimously 

 to have elected to call them after their discoverer. 

 Sketch-maps of (St. Paul and St. George are given, and 

 there are very full and minute details of each, and of the few 

 neighbouring rocky islets, including Walrus Island, which 

 would [appear to teem during the summer season with 

 bird life. The history of the progress made from the 

 earhest to the present times by the various villages on 

 these islands is also given, and the writer alludes to the 

 fact that the natives may be expected in the end to adopt 

 the English rather than the Russian tongue. 



The longest chapter in the volume [is that devoted to 

 the history of the habits and manners of the fur seal, 

 which in myriads frequents these islands, and this chapter 

 will well deserve perusal. From the economic point of 

 view the author seems satisfied that, should the laws 

 and regulations made by the United States Government 

 be acted on in the future as they are now, 100,000 

 male seals under the age of five years and above the 

 age of one year may be safely taken each year without 

 the slightest injury to the regular birth-rate, or the natural 

 increase thereof Calculating the pups at 1,000,000 a 

 year, of this number half are males. Of these, say one- 

 half are lost during their first year of infancy. Owing to 

 the polygamous habits of the males and the great age 

 to which the adult males live, not one-fifteenth of this 

 number is ever needed on the rookeries, and on this 

 showing it is better that they should be killed to supply 

 the fur trade with their skins, than that they should be 

 allowed to live to consume millions of cod and wolf-fish. 



The sea-lion ( Eumetopias stclleri) is also a charac- 

 teristic pinniped of these islands, but, having no fur, is 

 for its naked skin valuable only to the natives. Mr. 

 Elliott gives a graphic account of the habits of these 

 enormous beasts, the adult males of which will measure 

 10 to II feet in length, with a girth of 8 to 9 feet around 

 the chest and shoulders. 



In the chapter on " Innuit Life and Land" a good 

 deal of information is given as to an immense northern 

 area, where the dwelling-houses are approached by under- 

 ground passages, and where moose and reindeer abound. 

 Still more northern wilds are described in a chapter on 

 " Lonely Northern Wastes," while one on " Walrus and 

 Walrus-hunting" concludes the volume. These morse 

 are perhaps of all animals the most difficult subjects that 



an artist can find to reproduce from life. There are no 

 angles or elbows to seize hold of; the outlines of the 

 body and limbs are all rounded, free, and flowing. Some 

 life studies of the young made by artists no doubt are 

 good ; but, until the appearance of Mr. Elliott's drawings 

 of the fully mature animal, we had nothing in the way 

 of portraits much better than caricatures of these strange 

 beasts. 



One interesting fact is mentioned in connection with 

 Norton's Sound : on its shores are many low clayey bluffs, 

 which, as they are annually undermined by the surf and 

 chiselled by frost, fall in heavy masses on the beach, 

 thereby exposing deposits of the bones and tusks which 

 apparently belong to the mammoth. From time imme- 

 morial the Innuits have used this ivory for tipping their 

 spears, lances, and arrows. 



The illustrations, as we have before said, form a very 

 prominent feature in this volume, which we commend to 

 the reader's notice as both interesting and pleasant 

 reading. 



ANTIQUITIES OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL / 

 Lt's Ages prehistoriques de I'Espagne et du Portugal. 

 Par M. Emile Cartailhac. Imperial 8vo, with 450 cuts 

 and 4 plates. (Paris: Reinwald, 1886.) 



\NTHROPOLOGISTS and archaeologists will gladly 

 hail this handsome volume from the pen of the 

 editor of the " Materiaux pour I'Histoire primitive de 

 I'Homme." It relates to two countries of the primaeval 

 antiquities of which but little is generally known, and the 

 literature concerning whose early relics has hitherto been 

 but scanty. It is true that we have various essays on the 

 prehistoric antiquities of Portugal by Carlos Ribeiro, 

 Delgado, and the Geological Commission ; while those 

 of Spain have been treated of by Signor Tubino and Dr. 

 Vilanovay Piera, and, so far as Andalusia is concerned, by 

 Signor Gongora y Martinez ; and, as to some of the caves, 

 by Mr. MacPherson and the late Mr. Busk. The work, 

 however, of M. Cartailhac is far more general and com- 

 prehensive than that of any previous author. It will be 

 well perhaps to give some sort of summary of the contents 

 of his book. 



After some preliminary considerations, he attacks the 

 subject of the quartzite and flint flakes, which have been 

 considered by some to prove the existence of man in 

 Portugal in Tertiary times, but after a fair examination of 

 the facts, not only in Portugal but in France, he regards 

 the proofs as not sufficiently convincing, and remarks 

 that unexceptionable traces of Tertiary man remain still 

 to be discovered. Probably not a few of those who 

 visited the plain of Otta on the occasion of the Prehistoric 

 Congress at Lisbon in 1880 will agree in this verdict 

 of M. Cartailhac. 



The existence of Quaternary man in Spain has evidence 

 in its favour of a far more satisfactory character. Sec- 

 tions of the remarkable valley-gravel deposits of the 

 Manzanares at San Isidro, near Madrid, are given, as 

 well as cuts of some of the implements there found, 

 which, so far as form and material are concerned, might 

 have come from the valley of the Somme. Some other 

 implements of the same class have also been found in 

 Portugal. Instruments both in flint and bone similar to 



