434 



NA TURE 



[March lo, 1881 



enough commingled in one and the same accumulation. It is to 

 account for this remarlvable commingling that a large portion of 

 my book was written. 



3. Mr. Dawkins seems to be ignorant of the fact that the 

 ossiferous deposits of Mont Perrier occur on two separate and 

 distinct horizons. The lower- bed, characterised by the presence 

 of Mastodon arveniensis and other extinct forms, is unquestion- 

 ably true Pliocene. It is overlaid by the "pumiceous con- 

 glomerate," with its far-transported and glacially-striated erratics. 

 Upon the denuded smface of this well-marked morainic accu- 

 mulation rests the upper bed, which contains a very difiereut 

 mammaliaa fauna — Elephas meridionalis. Rhinoceros leptorhintis 

 (Cuv.), hippopotamus, tapir, horse, cave-bear, hya:na, hedgehog, 

 &c. The flora associated w ith this fauna is not Pliocene but 

 Pleistocene. The upper bed is overlaid in turn by a newer set 

 of glacial moraines and erratics. Tlie list of Upper Pliocene 

 Mammalia from Mont Perrier and IssoJre, given by Mr. Da u kins 

 in his "Early Man in Britain," consists of a "hash-up" of the 

 species derived fro-U those two separate and distinct horizons. 



4. The most recent list of mammalia from the liguite-beds of 

 Leffe and Borlezza is quoted by me from Prof. Stopanni, on the 

 authority of Dr. Forsyth Major. All the species in that list, 

 without exception, have frequently occurred in Pleistocene beds, 

 the age of w4iich is generally admitted. The plants and shells 

 associated with these species are all likewise Pleistocene forms. 

 Moreover, as Stopanni has demonstrated, and as I can testify, the 

 stratigraphical evidence proves that the beds pertain to the 

 Glacial series. Prof. Mayer, no mean authority, has shown 

 that the upper beds of the so-called Pliocene of the Val d' Arno 

 (containing Elephas meridionalis and hippopotamus) are not the 

 equivalents of the marine Pliocene, as has hitherto been the 

 belief of palceontologists, but must be classified as Quaternary or 

 Pleistocene. 



5. All that I siy with regard to the age of the skull of Olmo 

 occurs on p. 31S of my book, and what I say is simply this, "It 

 pertains to Pleistocene times — to the period during which Elephas 

 meridionalis belonged to the European fauna." I do not assert 

 its Interglacial age. It may be either Preglacial (i.e. early 

 Pleistocene) or Interglacial as the Leffe beds are. 



I was not aware that geological classification is always based 

 on zoology alone. I am under the impression that botanical 

 evidence, when it can be obtained, is not despised, and that 

 stratigraphical and other physical evidence is not usually ignored. 

 In trying to work out the historical geology of the Pleiitocene, 

 I have considered the pal.-eontological as fully as the physical 

 evidence. Mr. Dawkins would have me rest contented with that 

 of the mammalia alone, as interpreted by himself. 



Perth, February 19. James Geikie 



As my name has been imported into the controversy between 

 Prof. Dawkins and Dr. James Geikie, will you kindly permit me 

 to state that I am quite prepared, after re-reading the account 

 given by Dr. Geikie of the Victoria Cave, to accept all responsi- 

 bility for its correctnes >. 



Without entering into the general question, in the particular 

 case of the Victoria Cave the evidence for the contemporaneity 

 in the same area of the reindeer and hippopotamus is not veiy 

 cogent ; a review of all the evidence from that sou.'ce indeed 

 points the other way. The specimen mentioned by Prof. 

 Dawkins was, according to his Report,' found in digging a shaft, 

 a method of exploration unfortunately at that time (1S72) em- 

 ployed by the Committee. The subsequent explorations, \\ hich 

 were not conducted in this manner, but by crrefuUy removing 

 the deposits, layer by layer, to prevent any possibility of acci- 

 dental mixture of the remains, gave abundant evidence of rein 

 deer in the upper beds, but not any satisfactory evidence of its 

 presence in the lower beds, containing Hippopotamus, Elephas 

 antiqiius, Rhinoceros leptorhintts, &c. This is a point, amongst 

 others, to which, as Reporter to the Committee, I paid careful 

 attention, and the details \vere impartially given in the Reports. - 

 The absence of reindeer from a lower bed, the only one con- 

 taining the same fauna in the Creswell caves explored by the 

 Rev. M. Mello and Prof. Dawkins, is worthy of note as bearing 

 on the same subject. 



As regards the evidence for the antiquity of man from the 

 Victoria Cave, Dr. Geikie has fairly stated both sides of the 

 question, and he certainly does not deserve the accusation that 



: ; British Assoc. Report, iS/s, Sections, 



, Reports, 1871-78. 



' Report on the Victoria C 

 p. 179. 

 ' Victoria Cave : British As; 



he "has only called those \\itnesses which count on his side." 

 Prof. Dawkins, in dismissing the whole of this evidence as 

 "founded on a mistake," must be aware that he is using a con- 

 venient formula which can only apply fairly to a part of it, the 

 doubtfulness of which has already been fully conceded. He 

 entirely shelves other evidences which are the result of a long 

 and careful exploration.^ 



To state that he doubts their cogency would be to take a 

 course of which no one would complain ; but to say as if it were 

 a matter of general agreement that they are "founded on a 

 mistake," looks like an attempt to stifle discussion. 



But his remarks are so obviously polemical that to most 

 geologists they will probably carry more amusement and less 

 conviction than the writer contemplated. 



Hastings, February 19 R. H. Tiddeman 



Les lettres d'Outre-mer 



In the Notes, published in Nature of January 13, p. 254, 

 the last paragraph gives, as a fact, an announcement of "the 

 simplest post-office in the world " in Magellan Straits, as still in 

 existence. 



At least fourteen years ago there was published a graphic 

 account of this unique establishment by the most eminent of all 

 living French writers, M. Victor Hugo, who introduces the cir- 

 cumstance into his famous work of fiction, "Les Travailleurs 

 de la Mer " ; and ever since reading the account I have wondered 

 where the great author obtained his circumstantial relation, which 

 refers to the year 1823. Nor can I believe that such a system 

 of oceanic exchange ever really was in existence, at least on the 

 spot indicated, for a very good reason ; that at the point indi- 

 cated, viz. the neighbourhood of Port Famine, when the Beagle 

 was there in 1834 (see Darwin's " Naturalist's Voyage," chap. 

 xi.), "the Fuegiins twice came and plagued " the crew ; so that 

 an open barrel would hardly be safe. Darwin, also, who ascended 

 Mount Tarn, the most elevated point in this district, would surely 

 have mentioned this famous barrel post-office, had it existed (?). 



I am therefore curious to know whence the note in Natitre 

 was compiled, but I fancy the account is apocryphal. That there 

 were however other oceanic post-offices somewhat similar in 

 principle is a fact in reality. 



In 1673 Ascension was visited by the Dominican, Father 

 Navarette, who speaks of it then as the "Sailor's Post-Office." 

 " Mariners of all nations being accustomed at that time to leave 

 letters here, sealed up in a bottle, in a certain known cranny of 

 some rock, to be taken away by the first ship which passed in an 

 opposite direction" (Mrs. Gill's "Six Months in Ascension," 

 p. 61). And again in 1769 we find the following extract : — 



" 1769, Febry. 3-4 

 " Ascension island. 

 Bougainville. 



Louis de Bougainville, Colonel of Foot and Commodore of the 

 Expedition in the Frigate La B.iiJeuse. 



Arrd. and anchored in the North-west creek or ' Creek of the 

 Mountain of the Cross.' 



Anchorage according to Abbe la Caille. 



7° 54' s. — 16° 19' west, of Paris. 

 Variation 9° 45' NW. 

 Three creeks caught turtle. 



N.E. creek. N.W. cr^ek. English creek, S.W. 



" In the afternoon the bottle was brought to me which con- 

 tains the paper whereon the ships of every nation generally write 

 their name, when they touch at Ascension Island. 



" This bottle is deposited in a cavity of the rocks of this bay, 

 where it is e-jually sheltered from rain and the spray of the sea. 

 In it I found written the Swallow, that English ship which 

 Caprain Carteret com;nanded, and whic'o I was desirous of join- 

 ing.^ He arrived here the 31st of January, and set sail again 

 on the 1st of February; thus we had already gained six days 

 upon him, after leaving the Cape of Good Hope. I inscribed 

 the Boudeuse and sent back the bottle." 



At page 4 of Melli^s' "Account of St. Helena (1875) is a 

 wood-cut of the South Atlantic Post Office of 1645. Speaking 

 of the island of St. Helena, Mr. Melliss says :— 



" It became about this time— little more than a century after 

 its discovery — a resort of Dutch and Spanish ships, as well as 



' Victoria Cave Report. oJ>. cit. 1877, pp. 218-220, and 1878 ; youm. 

 Anthrop. Inst. vol. vii pp. 166-173- 

 = La Boudeuse caught up the Swallmu, 25th February. 



