ArriL 18, 1912] 
other British authorities recognise to be an extension 
of the great AZgean spiral motive which passed 
through a large part of Europe in the early Bronze 
age. M. Dechelette now endeavours to trace the 
pattern through seven types: tattooed images of the 
Mother goddess of the A2gean area, and figurines 
from the second stratum at Hissarlik; anthropo- 
morphic pillars from Fivizzano in Italy; Sardinian 
menhirs; plaques from the Iberian peninsula; 
menhirs and cave sculptures, with fragments of vases, 
from France; cylinders from Follkton Wold in York- 
shire; and Scandinavian vases. This essay, which is 
well provided with figured representations of the 
assumed transitional types, is sure to furnish material 
for discussion. The art student will probably desire 
more evidence of the approximation of these motives 
in their original home, the AZgean area, whence, 
whatever the exact source may be, the type was 
certainly derived. 
In the April issue of Man Mr. Harold Peake de- 
scribes an elaborate scheme for an anthropological 
survey of the British Isles. It is intended to include 
not only the physical types from which the existing 
population has been derived, but extends to all forms 
of human activity, both in the past and at the pre- 
sent day. It is proposed, as part of the project, to 
compile a series of maps showing the course of dis- 
tribution of trade articles in prehistoric times—bronze 
celts, amber, pigs of lead, and the like—with the posi- 
tion of the mines of gold, copper, and tin known to 
the ancients. In order to afford facilities for com- 
paring the culture of the past with that of the pre- 
sent, he suggests the preparation of maps showing 
soil and vegetation, the distribution of woodland and 
marsh, the mineral supply, the distribution of the 
Neolithic people, the early centres of metallurgy, and 
the movements of invading tribes. As regards exist- 
ing facts, we need surveys of the density of the pre- 
sent population and its economic conditions, such as 
the prevalence of lunacy, poverty, and crime. He 
proposes to initiate this elaborate scheme through a 
central bureau working in cooperation with field 
clubs, county museums, and the like. There can be 
no question that such material, if collected in a scien- 
_tific way, would be of great service; but it needs an 
amount of cooperation between the unorganised body 
of workers which, for the present at least, is not 
within the range of practical politics. 
Mr. H. Hasenicut of Gotha, in a pamphlet on 
“Die antediluvianischen Oasen bei Taubach und 
Tonna,” attributes the occurrence of northern erratics 
in the Thiringian loess to catastrophic flooding, 
which took place at the close of the steppe-epoch that 
followed on the first extension of the continental ice. 
A picturesque detail is drawn from the fossil birds’ 
eggs in the Taubach tufa; the flood broke across 
Thiiringia ‘“‘on a fine day of early summer.’’ This 
overflow, however, was general, owing to a sudden 
subsidence, and the mammoth—its hairy covering 
notwithstanding—is said to have been thus trans- 
ported northwards. The damp atmosphere, checking 
the sun’s rays, is held responsible for the second 
extension of the ice. The author, however, does not 
NO. 2216, VOL. 89] 
) NAT CISE 173 
o 
hope for general sympathy in his revival of the belief 
in a universal deluge. 
Last year the Marine Biological Station at St. 
Diego celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the 
movement that led to its foundation, and advantage 
was taken of the occasion to publish an account of its 
rise, progress, and future. This has been drawn up 
by Mr. W. E. Ritter, and issued as No. 4 of vol. ix. 
of the University of California Publications in 
Zoology. The scope of this report is very wide, 
taking into consideration the larger meaning of 
science in general, and of biology in particular. 
Reference is made to the present condition of the 
station, to the work already accomplished, and to 
projects for the future. In the concluding section it 
is urged that every scientific institution ought to do 
something towards diffusing an accurate knowledge 
of modern scientific work among the general public. 
This should be done—largely through the public 
press—by persons who have themselves been engaged 
in scientific work, and should by no means be left 
to those who merely read up science. 
For several years past Prof. E. C. Case has been 
working at the wonderful Permian vertebrate fauna 
of North America, and some of his latest results are 
embodied in ‘‘A Revision of Amphibia and Fishes” of 
this formation, published as a quarto memoir by the 
Carnegie Institution of Washington (1911). The 
memoir opens with a review of previous work on the 
subject, this being followed by a table of the classi- 
fication of the Amphibia as now revised, after which 
comes a detailed synopsis of the various groups. 
With the exception of one genus referred to the same 
group (Urodela) as modern salamanders, the whole of 
the amphibians are referable to the stegocephalians, or 
labyrinthodonts, in the classification of which the 
author follows in the main the lead given by Cope. 
A discussion of the fishes is given by Mr. L. 
Hussakof, who concludes with a comparison of the 
fish-fauna of the Permian of America with that of 
Bohemia, in which it is pointed out that there is a 
great similarity between the two, with the exception 
that the acanthodian sharks are unrepresented in the 
American formation. 
Tue Journal of the Royal Society of Arts of 
March 29 contains the report of a lecture on modern 
whaling, delivered by Mr. T. E. Salvesen at the 
sixteenth ordinary meeting of the society. After an 
historical account of whaling, the lecturer stated that 
the great recent development of the industry has 
taken place in the southern hemisphere, where the 
chief objects of pursuit are rorquals and humpbacks. 
In South Georgia 7000 whales, yielding some 200,000 
barrels of oil, were taken last year; in the South 
Shetlands the catch was 3500, and in South Africa 
4000, the total number of whales taken during the 
season to the south of the equator being about 17,500, 
with a yield of some 500,000 barrels of oil, and a 
gross value of about 1,750,o00l. For the whole 
world, the catch was about 22,500 whales, with a 
yield of some 620,000 barrels of oil. The present 
year’s take is expected to exceed that of 1911 by at 
least from 1o to rg per cent. It is a matter for 
