May 25, 1905] 



NA TURE 



83 



the double chevron-bones, which were at first thought 

 to be peculiar to this form, althoug-h now known to be 

 common to the entire group), which appears to be 

 distinguished from all its relatives by the weakness of 

 its dentition, the teeth being reduced to a small num- 

 ber, of the size and form of lead pencils, confined to the 

 front of the jaws. Another remarkable feature, which 

 may, however, have been common to other members of 

 the group, is the position of the nasal aperture at the 

 top of the skull, this being not improbably indicative 

 of partially aquatic habits, an inference confirmed by 

 the nature of the dentition of Diplodocus, which can 

 scarcely have been adapted for anything else than a diet 

 of soft and luscious water-plants. 



Diplodocus was apparently one of the largest repre- 

 sentatives of the group, the length of the skeleton, as 

 mounted, being about 75 feet, while if the vertebral 

 column were placed in a straight line the length would 

 be some 10 feet more. The height at the shoulder is 

 about 14 feet. The only rival to such bulk at the pre- 

 sent day is presented by the skeleton of Sibbald's 

 rorqual. That such a monster should have a skull 

 considerably smaller than that of a large crocodile is 

 one of the most remarkable facts made apparent by this 

 restoration ; while scarcely less noteworthv are the ex- 



FlG. I.— Restored Model of the Skeleton of /'///flrfc.ns cnriu-gii as ■jrigin- 

 ally set up in the Museum at Pittsburg. From aphotograijh presented 

 by 0r. Holland to the British Museum. 



treme elongation of the neck and tail (the latter for 

 several feet of its length being comparable to a huge 

 whip-lash), and the shortness of the trunk. With the 

 e.xception of the bones regarded as the clavicles, of 

 which only one original specimen was found, and 

 the position of which in the skeleton may be doubtful, 

 there is full authority for every bone in the model ; so 

 that we are now practically as well acquainted with the 

 osteology of these monsters as we are with that of 

 crocodiles. 



Mr. Carnegie's gift, which is due to the initiation of 

 the King, is not only of immense value and interest to 

 the man of science, but will likewise prove a great 

 attraction to the ordinary visitor to the Museum. It is 

 almost an appalling thought that the skeleton of a 

 creature which lived at least several million years ago 

 should have come down in such marvellous preservation 

 to our own day. 



IRE MASAI OF EAST AFRICA.' 

 'T'HE Masai (the word should be pronounced with a 

 -»■ stress on the first syllable — Masai) were first dis- 

 tinguished and described as an East African people by 

 the missionary Krapf, who, with Rebmann, was the 

 discoverer of Mounts Kenia and I-vilimanjaro. Krapf, 

 who commenced the exploration of equatorial East 

 Africa in 1848, had begun dimly to perceive the re- 



1 "The Masai, their I. aniruaee and Folklore." By A C. Hollis. With 

 an introduction by Sir Ch:irles Elliot. Pp. xxviii + 356. (Oxford : Claren- 

 don Press, 1905.) Price 14J. net. 



NO. 1856, VOL. 72] 



markable oneness in language of the Bantu tribes in 

 the southern half of .Africa from the Equator to Natal 

 and Cape Colony, and he was therefore puzzled to find 

 in the Masai a race intruding into Bantu East Africa 

 which spoke a language absolutely different from the 

 Bantu type. 



At this period — let us say about 1850 — the Masai had 

 forced themselves on the attention of the Arab rulers 

 of East .Africa by their raids on the cattle of the Bantu 

 tribes, raids which brought them occasionally to within 

 sight of the island-town of Mombasa. In the 'fifties 

 of the last century, nevertheless, the Masai had not 

 established that reign of terror which during the 'six- 

 ties, 'seventies, and 'eighties did so much to obstruct 

 the exploration of eastern equatorial .Africa, and so 

 long prevented the white man from travelling direct 

 from the Mombasa coast to the eastern shores of the 



Victoria Nvanza. Therefore, in the 'fifties of the 

 nineteenth 'century, Swahili, Arab or Baluch traders 

 managed to reach'the east and north-east coasts of the 

 Victoria Nyanza from Mombasa or Lamu. The stones 

 they told to Krapf and other missionaries gave to 

 Europeans the first hint of the existence beyond the 

 Masai of tribes allied in speech and physical character- 

 istics and habits. During the 'seventies the .Masai 

 pushed their raids further and further south, until 

 they were almost heard of— so to speak— in the regions 

 immediately to the north of Lake Nyasa. In this 

 direction they were ultimately checked by the sturdy 

 resistance of'the Bantu Hche people, a vigorous race 

 that long resisted German dominion in the same 

 territory, a race made more warlike and coherent by 

 a slight infusion of Zulu immigrants from the south. 

 To the south-west the Masai were checked by the war- 

 like Wagogo, to the west by the distantly allied tribes 

 of Lumbw'a and .]a-luo, and to the north by the Galas 

 and Somalis. It is possible, however, that but for the 

 eventual interposition of the European they might have 



