306 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 947 



tie stone implements of the Scandinavian 

 shell heaps " have usually been polished and 

 sharpened by rubbing; this justifying their 

 assignment to the ' smooth stone age.' " The 

 fact is, artifacts of polished stone characterize 

 a later stage and not the early shell-heap 

 phase of the neolithic. Neither do the 

 " chipped flint daggers of exquisite form " and 

 the perforated diorite axes (pp. 125-126) come 

 from the " kitchen middens," but from the 

 stone cist burials of a later epoch. The state- 

 ments that the Cro-Magnon race is of neo- 

 lithic age (p. 115) and that it did not appear 

 until after the mammoth had become extinct 

 (p. 116) would not be admitted by the best 

 authorities. Cro-Magnon is paleolithic and 

 the mammoth lived on until the close of the 

 Magdalenian, as attested by the mural art of 

 the caverns, especially at Font-de-Gaume ; and 

 hence was a contemporary of the Cro-Magnon 

 race. In the same paragraph by inference 

 one is led to suppose that the engraved figure 

 of a reindeer from Thayngen is the work of 

 a neolithic craftsman ; when on the contrary 

 it is paleolithic. 



As might be expected of Professor Wright, 

 much space is devoted to man and the Glacial 

 period, not only in the old world, but also in 

 the new. His estimates of the length of time 

 that has elapsed since the beginning of the 

 Glacial period are moderate. He believes that 

 the Glacial period was practically a unit, 

 there being four phases instead of four dis- 

 tinct epochs, thus differing from some of the 

 most noted living glacialists. The cause of 

 the Glacial period is assigned to land eleva- 

 tion and its disappearance to a subsidence, 

 factors which probably played a role in the 

 great climatic drama, but which might have 

 been correlated with other factors such as the 

 changing condition of the sun itself and in 

 the atmosphere. 



But little space is given to cultural and 

 somatic evolution, in which field many impor- 

 tant results have recently been achieved. The 

 Magdalenian polychrome frescoes on the cav- 

 ern ceiling at Altamira are referred to as of 

 Aurignacian age, an error into which SoUas 

 (" Ancient Hunters ") also fell. 



The author's point of view might possibly 

 be best reflected in a few quotations : " Our 

 earliest knowledge of man is of a being fully 

 formed and in possession of all the faculties 

 of his kind" (p. 389). "On the important 

 question of man's first arrival on this planet 

 we may for the present possess our minds in 

 peace, not a trace of unquestionable evidence 

 of his existence having been found in strata 

 admittedly older than the Pleistocene " (pp. 

 341-2) . " The simple arithmetical calcula- 

 tions made above show that when once started, 

 the dispersion over the world, the diversifica- 

 tion of the races, the differentiation of lan- 

 guages, and the development of ancient civil- 

 ization may easily have come about in the- 

 course of four or five thousand years, if not 

 in half that time, and that the extension of 

 prehistoric time for eight thousand years 

 affords superabundant opportunity for the 

 growth and development of all the peculiari- 

 ties and institutions of man as first made 

 known to us at the dawn of history " (p. 493). 

 " The antiquity of man therefore so far as 

 the question depends upon his connection with 

 the Glacial epoch, is not proved to be, even 

 when we allow a generous margin, greater 

 than twelve or fifteen thousand years " (p. 

 494). 



The chapter preceding the " Summary and 

 Conclusion " treats of " The Biblical Scheme." 

 The work has the welcome merit of an en- 

 gaging style, possessing to a degree the charm 

 of the author's personality. Another attract- 

 ive feature is the " Appendix " of copious 

 notes and references. 



George Grant MacCcedy 



Yale University 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



NEW AND EXTINCT BIRDS AND OTHER SPECIES 

 FROM THE PLEISTOCENE OF OREGON 



Many years ago I published in the Journal 

 of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia 

 an account of the fauna of the Oregon desert 

 region during Pleistocene time. This account 

 was based upon a large collection of fossils 

 sent me for the purpose by the late Professor 

 E. D. Cope, who, with his assistants and a 



