424 Correspondence — J. Adam Watson. 



XVI. — Shorter Notices. — A Geological Map and Eeport on 

 the Tarcoola District, by H. Y. L. Brown, has just reached us. It 

 is part of the Records of the Mines of South Australia, and deals 

 mainly with gold supply. 



The Carnegie Museum at Pittsburgh, which was opened in 1895, 

 is described in the Popular Science Monthly for May, 1901, by 

 Dr. J. W. Holland, the Director. Professor Hatcher is making full 

 use of Mr. Carnegie's special fund for research in palgeontology, and 

 it is interesting to read that the most perfect specimen of Diplodocus 

 longus, six imperfect skeletons of Brontosaurus, and the largest 

 known Mastodon are in the Museum. 



Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pletdkll has published in the Proceedings 

 of the Dorset Field Club for 1900 a paper on the Influence of 

 Climatic and Geological Changes upon the British Flora. His 

 annual address for 1900 dealt with the geological history of Pisces. 

 That for 1901, still to be published, dealt with the geological history 

 of the Amphibia and Eeptilia. 



oo:Ri2,E!Si=oisrxDEi?ro:B- 



A SUGGESTED LINK IN THE ' BREAK ' BETWEEN PALEOLITHIC 

 AND NEOLITHIC MAN. 



Sir, — In the very interesting paper by Sir Henry Howorth in the 

 August number of your Magazine, we find that to him the great 

 gap between Palseolithic and Neolithic Man means a great 

 catastrophe. In the present attitude of geological opinion, such 

 a statement appears somewhat startling. But if we restrict the 

 meaning of the word ' catastrophe,' as used by Sir Henry, to the 

 occurrence in ancient times of climatic and physical changes of 

 similar nature to those taking place around us at the present day, 

 though of very much greater intensity, probably no geologist is now 

 so rigidly uniformitarian in his views as to refuse to accept it. 



The facts before us are these : — During some portion of the 

 Pleistocene Period, probably owing to the cO'Operation of astro- 

 nomical and geographical causes, climatic and physical changes, of 

 an intensity which it is difficult for us to realize, were brought about. 

 One of the results of these changes was the distribution of the 

 Drift. There can be little doubt that when this took place man 

 had already made his appearance upon earth. Indeed, Sir Henry is 

 satisfied with such evidence as we possess that his existence dates 

 back even into the previous Pliocene Period. However that may 

 be, and whether we hold that earliest man was Eolithic or 

 Palaeolithic, all physical traces of him disappear, with the exception 

 of his imperishable flint implements and a few doubtful bones ; and 

 when he next appears on the scene, he has undergone the very 

 considerable advance in development indicated by his entrance on 

 the Neolithic stage. Sir Henry holds that the great gap between 

 Palaeolithic and Neolithic man is coincident and in all probability 

 connected with the distribution of the Drift. 



