Dec. 25, 1879] 



NATURE 



179 



are quite willing to put every confidence in the state- 

 ments of so accurate and skilful an observer ; at the 

 same time we cannot help feeling some regret that he has 

 not been a little more explicit in his description of the 

 sections which lay open the characteristic form of the 

 laccolite. The horizontal base and the undisturbed state 

 of the underlying strata are the first points on which we 

 wish to be thoroughly assured. It is stated that " in five 

 instances one side of the dome of strata has been washed 

 away, exposing the core of trachyte to its base, and 

 showing undisturbed strata beneath." We do not doubt 

 the statement, but we should have been better satisfied 

 if these cases had been described more in detail in the 

 special account of the separate mountains. The views of 

 the Marvine laccolite in Figs. 43 and 44, if we under- 

 stand them aright, do seem to be conclusive on the point 

 of the horizontal base ; but the evidence would have been 

 more convincing if these plates had been explained at 

 greater length in the text. In fact, the one fault we have 

 to find with the book is the difficulty of understanding the 

 illustrations ; they are not striking from an artistic point 

 of view ; in some the letters of reference are so indistinct 

 that they can be found only with the utmost difficulty, and 

 we confess that by some we have been fairly beaten ; 

 we should, for instance, very much like to know w r hich is 

 the laccolite in Fig. 33. 



Again, the evidence for the parallelism between the 

 upper surface of the laccolite and the bedding of the 

 overlying rocks, has hardly been brought out with 

 sufficient distinctness ; after a comparison, for instance, 

 of Figs. 25 and 26, an invidious critic might have some- 

 thing severe to say about the proportion which the part 

 of the laccolite actually seen bears to that which is 

 admittedly theoretical. 



But we have made these remarks in no captious spirit ; 

 we wish merely to express our fear that the acceptance 

 of Mr. Gilbert's ingenious speculations may be hindered 

 by a lack of detail in the statement of the evidence he 

 brings forward in support of them. 



Assuming Mr. Gilbert's theory to be sound and good, 

 it is not likely that the Henry Mountains are the only 

 ones constructed on the laccolitic type. Mr. Gilbert is 

 inclined to class under this head a number of mountains 

 in the western territories, grouped together under one 

 type by Dr. A. C. Beale, in a paper in No. 3 vol. iii. of 

 the Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey. 

 We cannot say that there is anything in Dr. Beale's 

 description which would lead us to assign these mountains 

 to the laccolitic group ; and in one case, that of the Elk 

 Mountains, the careful account given in the Report for 

 1874 of the Geological and Geographical Survey of the 

 Territories, seems to show that they form a normal 

 mountain range ridged up by horizontal pressure. 



There is one problem which has been always more or 

 less of a puzzle to the student of volcanic phenomena, on 

 which Mr. Gilbert's speculations may possibly throw con- 

 siderable light : we mean the formation of pit-craters. 

 Mr. Scrope showed how these singular depressions had 

 probably been blown out by one single explosion of un- 

 usual violence, and Mr. Judd has suggested their con- 

 nection with intrusive sheets. If we suppose a rapid 

 accumulation of lava in a laccolitic mass, and a sudden 

 development within it of steam of high tension, we shall 

 have exactly the conditions suitable for producing one of 

 those explosions which there is every reason to think have 

 been the cause of pit-craters. 



The work contains a long and elaborate chapter on 

 "Earth Sculpture," which space will not allow us to do 

 more than mention, and concludes with a chapter on 

 Economics, in which the author insists with almost 

 pathetic earnestness, that the Henry Mountains, full of 

 interest as they are for the geologist, can never be put to 

 any profitable account commercially, unless possibly in 

 parts for grazing. Nature would seem here to have laid 



herself out to frame a district which should have attrac- 

 tions for no one but the student of pure science. 



A. H. G. 



FINNIC ETHNOLOGY 



A DECIDED stage in the progress of Finnish studies 

 ■**■ is marked by the sumptuous work on " Finnish 

 Crania," recently published by the native ethnologist, 

 Gustavus Retzius. 1 Continuing the investigations of his 

 father, Anders Retzius,thisdistinguished anthropologist has 

 at last been enabled to arrive at some definite conclusions 

 both as regards the type itself and its geographical area. 

 The elder writer was a warm advocate of what may be 

 called the Finno-European theory, which is still popular 

 amongst a certain school of fearless anthropologists, and 

 which, since the discovery of the Cuneiform writings, has 

 received a fresh impulse and a wider extension. This is 

 not the place to discuss the angry question of the Finno- 

 Ugrian relations to the Accad language and civilisation 

 of Babylonia. But many enthusiasts will probably be 

 disappointed to hear that the younger writer abandonsnis 

 father's position, and deals a severe blow to the doctrine 

 of a former wide-spread diffusion of the Finnish race over 

 the greater part of Central and Western Europe. The 

 laborious attempts of many ingenious philologists to dis- 

 cover traces of Ugrian affinities in the Italic and Teutonic 

 tongues, and even to remove the Etruscan from the 

 Aryan to the Ural-Altaic family, can scarcely be regarded 

 as at all successful. On the other hand, a few ancient 

 skulls presenting certain traits characteristic of the same 

 race, together with some hatchets and other stone imple- 

 ments picked up here and there analogous in fonn to 

 those often dug up in Finland, offered far too flimsy ma- 

 terials to supply a solid basis for such a vast superstruc- 

 ture. Hence it is not perhaps surprising that in the light 

 of further investigation and more serious research the 

 theory should prove to be somewhat visionary. 



History had already pointed out that during the 

 ascendency of the Goths from the Baltic to the Euxine 

 the Finns were found nowhere to the west, but only to 

 the east and north of that line ; in fact in their present 

 homes on the Volga, in Finland, round about the great 

 Russian lakes, and more recently along the southern 

 shores of the Gulf of Finland. It might doubtless be 

 argued that at this period the race had farther west been 

 already absorbed by the Slavs and Teutons of Aryan 

 stock, intruders from Asia. But no reliable data can be 

 appealed to in support of this position. The authenticity 

 of the stone hammers and other objects of Oriental form 

 said to have been found in France and elsewhere is now 

 questioned, while the philological argument never gets 

 beyond the purely etymological stage. 



Hence Gustavus Retzius adopts the view now fast 

 gaining ground, that instead of being the aborigines of 

 Western and Central Europe, the Finr.s are amongst the 

 most recent arrivals from Asia. Their own traditions 

 point to the Altai region as their true home ; the national 

 usages and the spirit of the popular songs embodied in 

 the great epic, the Kalevala, are all Asiatic rather than 

 European, and the uninterrupted stream of their migra- 

 tions westwards may still be clearly followed from their 

 most advanced outposts in the Scandinavian peninsula 

 through Finland, along the Volga and Kama valleys, 

 over the Urals, and up the Obi basin to the probable 

 cradle of their race in the Sayan highlands. 



The narrower, though scarcely less interesting question 

 of the position of the Finnic branch in the Ural-Altaic 

 family is still surrounded with difficulties, which seem to 

 be intensified rather than removed by the conclusions of 

 M. Retzius. While the Finnish language is no doubt 

 fundamentally connected with those of the other members 

 of the group, the physical features of the race present 



■ " Finska Kramer." Sluldrade af Gustaf Reuius, Stockholm, 1878. 



