AUGUST 5, I1915| 
NATURE 
615 

sums” now being spent upon the roads of Wis- 
consin. For the. years 1907-1911 the appropria- 
tion by the State for highway purposes was 2000l. 
per annum, in 1912 it was 80,ooo0l., in 1913 
170,000l., in 1914 it had risen to 246,o0o0l., and 
these figures represent less than one-third of the 
total amount spent on State-aided roads in the 
corresponding years. It must be remembered, 
however, that ten years ago there were practically 
no stone roads beyond the town boundaries. 
The scheme of the report is excellent : part i. is 
a short introduction to the characters of the avail- 
able road stones and to the methods of testing; 
part ii. deals with limestone, which appears to 
be the most convenient stone for use on the 
roads. The quarries in each county are described 
separately, and county maps show the distribution 
of the stone and quarries. Tests for each quarry 
were made by the Office of Public Roads (U.S 
Department of Agriculture), part of the cost of 
which was borne by the State Highway Com- 
mission. The report of necessity possesses more 
local than general interest, yet it might well be 
taken as a model by the Geological Survey of 
Great Britain, which mentions quarries in a casual 
way in its memoirs, but has not yet produced one 
in which all the facts relating to a single important 
branch of the quarry industry are readily 
accessible. 
Staffordshire. By W. B. Smith. Pp. xi+155. 
(Cambridge: At the University Press, 1915.) 
Price 1s. 6d. net. 
In dealing with a county which includes two great 
manufacturing areas, an author might have been 
pardoned for giving an emphasis to the industrial 
character of Staffordshire, and for dwelling at 
length on the conditions which make Staffordshire 
the third county in industrial importance. Mr. 
Smith, however, has wisely balanced the more 
prosaic and unlovely areas against the beauty 
spots, such as Dovedale and the Moorlands, and 
the grimy factories against the fairer farms and 
the charming parks. The reader is introduced to 
dales comparatively unknown outside the county, 
to isolated items of interest such as the wild goats 
in Bagot’s Park, and the Horn Dancers of 
Abbots Bromley. Those who have some acquaint- 
ance with Staffordshire will find much that is new 
in this book, which maintains the high standard 
of the series. 
Catalogue of the Books, Manuscripts, Maps, and 
Drawings in the British Museum (Natural His- 
tory). Vol. v.. SO—Z. Pp. 446. (London: 
Printed by Order of the Trustees of the British 
Museum, 1915.) Price 20s. 
Tuis volume of the catalogue of the collection of 
books, maps, and drawings in the Natural History 
branch of the British Museum brings the series 
of entries under the authors’ names down to the 
end of the alphabet. The plan of the catalogue 
is that of the previous volumes, and was described 
when these were noticed in these columns. 
NO. 2388, VOL. 95] 

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 
opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neither 
can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 
the writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 
this or any other part of Nature. No notice is 
taken of cnonymous communications.] 
Paleolithic Man in South Africa. 
In November of 1913 Mr. J. L. 
farmer, of Adelaide, C.P., 
Groenewald, a 
showed me some pieces of 
fossil bones, explaining that he had obtained them 
from a friend’s farm at Boskop, in the Transvaal. 
He wanted my opinion as to whether they were human 
or not. I pronounced them to be portions of a human 
skull-cap of some very ancient race, and prevailed 
upon him to give them to me. 
tion, after the parts had 
measured, made it clear 
A subsequent examina- 
fitted together 
it was of a 
and 
race as 
been 
that 

Front view of the two skull-caps. (1) Neanderthal; (2) Boskop. 

Back view of the two skull-caps. (1) Boskop; (2) Neanderthal. 

in comparison with the typical 
(2) Neanderthal 
Side view of the Boskop skull-cap, 
Neanderthal skull-cap. (1) Boskop skull-cap ; 
skull-cap. The forehead parts lace outwards. 
more so, than the Neanderthal or the La 
Chapelle man. It bears a close resemblance in shape, 
thickness, and measurements to the former. The 
skull is as completely fossilised as the Karoo fossil 
reptiles. That it is of vast antiquity is certain 
This Boskop man differs from the typica] Nean- 
derthal type in having a lesser development of the 
ancient, or 


