TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 923 



mitted to the Western, created a great psychological and historical revolution. 

 With this latter epoch we can connect the numerous phenomena of language, 

 culture, and mythology, the resemblances of which have been so long noted and by 

 so many authors. 



The adaptation of a phonetic system to ideas expressed by gesture, as explained 

 by Mr. Clarke in the ' Transactions ' of the Association, depended on the full applica- 

 tion by himself of the observations of Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, that in many 

 languages the mouth, tooth, and nose are severally represented by labials, dentals, 

 and nasals. These are applied primarily and secondarily, &c, in series, as from 

 mouth, eye, ear, sun, moon, egg, blood, eat, speak, &c, and with various con- 

 ventional and symbolic meanings. The resemblances among languages did not 

 depend on descent from one primeval language, but on the propagation of 

 languages based on one phonetic and psychological system. Of such resemblances 

 he instances that of Yahgan of Tierra del Fuego to West Africa (British Associa- 

 tion, 1883). He recalled that the ancient geographical nomenclature of America 

 in names of mountains, rivers, lakes, "and towns not unfrequently corresponded with 

 that of the Old World. The animal names were of common origin, with the muta- 

 tion of tapir with elephant, puma with lion and tiger, llama, &c, with horse. 



The mythology or fetishism as shown by the Bribri of Central America was in 

 conformity with an identical origin. 



A variety of facts of common propagation had to be accounted for, and although 

 intercourse across Behring's Straits and the Pacific would partially explain, there 

 must have been direct and continual intercourse across the Atlantic, assisted by the 

 currents. 



He rejected the geological hypothesis of an Atlantis extending across the 

 ocean and now submerged, but considered the traditions in the Dialogue Thnseus 

 in Plato to represent broadly the antecedent conditions. America had come under 

 the dominion of an Atlantis or Great King of the West, with territories also in 

 Mauritania, Spain, and the Britains. His defeat in naval contests in the Western 

 Mediterranean by the leading kings of the East was a sufficient cause for the 

 cessation of intercourse with America. The legend of the sinking of Atlantis, and 

 that of the filling up of the ocean with mud so as to make it impassable, were mere 

 excrescences on the legend, but had fascinated most students. If we treated the 

 elephants mentioned in the Timseus as tapirs, and the horses as llamas and beasts 

 of burden, not dealing with the detail of legend too strictly, then the legend itself, 

 freed from impossibilities and inconsistencies, acquired consistency. 



Mr. Clarke, in combination with that of the Atlantis, dwelt on the legend of the 

 Four Worlds as showing a former knowledge of the configuration of the Americas 

 in the ancient world. 



According to his investigations the languages and culture of America are not 

 of local growth, but imparted by a higher race at the period of the foundation of 

 like institutions in the Eastern world. The differences he assigned to distinct 

 development chiefly consequent on the breaking off of intercourse. 



WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. On the Lapidary Sculptures of the Dolmens of the Morbihan. 

 By Admiral F. H. Teemlett. 



The author described in detail a number of the sculptures which were found in 

 the Dolmens of the Morbihan. About eighty of these sculptures had been found, 

 invariably on the interior surfaces of the capstones and then' supports. They are 

 circumscribed within an area of about a dozen miles, near to the sea coast, beyond 

 which, although megalithic monuments are very numerous, there is a complete 

 absence of the sculptures. The author considered that the implements used by the 

 carvers were made of stone, and described the manner in which he himself had 

 made experiments with pieces of chert, 



