January 14, 



••] 



SCIENCE. 



53 



differences, and that the ISTugsuak plant 

 heds filled up hollows in the gneisses, and 

 ■were not very different now in their position 

 as regards the sea from that occupied at 

 the time of their deposition. 

 ( To he concluded. ) 



J. F. Kemp. 



COLUSIBIA UnIVEESITY. 



TBLE SECTION OF ANTBS.OPOLOGY AT ITHACA. 



In accordance with an arrangement made 

 at Detroit, a meeting of Section H (An- 

 thropoloy) of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science was held at 

 Cornell University, at Ithaca, December 29 

 and 30, 1897. 



On Wednesday morning, December 29th, 

 the Section organized with Vice-President 

 "W J McGee in the chair and Dr. A. 

 Hrdlicka as Secretary pro tern. Immedi- 

 ately afterward the session adjourned to 

 permit the members to attend the meeting 

 of the American Psychological Association 

 then in progress, and to unite with the 

 American Society of Naturalists during the 

 afternoon. 



The Section reassembled for the reading 

 of papers Thursday morning. The first 

 communication was a full account of the 

 elaborate ' Mythology of the Bella Coola,' 

 by Dr. Franz Boas. After describing the 

 beliefs of this remarkably interesting Indian 

 tribe, the author proceeded to a comparison 

 of these beliefs, and the ceremonies by 

 which they are attended, with those of 

 neighboring tribes, and discussed the de- 

 velopment of myths in general as well as 

 the special lines of mythic development 

 traced among the Bella Coola. Comments 

 were made by Dr. Farrand, Professor Cat- 

 tell and Dr. Beauchamp. 



This was followed by a paper on the 

 ' Loss of Aboriginal Arts and its Signifi- 

 cance,' by Eev. W. M. Beauchamp, in 

 the course of which the author emphasized 



the transformation in the aboriginal arts of 

 central JSTew York attending the incursion 

 of conquering tribes. 



On behalf of the Committee of the Asso- 

 ciation on ' The Ethnography of the "White 

 Race in the United States,' Dr. Boas made 

 a brief report of progress. 



The next communication was an illus- 

 trated account of ' Dwellings of the Saga 

 Time in Iceland, Greenland and Vineland,' 

 by Miss Cornelia Horsford. Beginning with 

 a description of the ]Srorse Sagas, coveringthe 

 period A. D. 875-1025, Miss Horsford noted 

 the recent researches concerning the habita- 

 tions described in the Sagas. None of these 

 have thus far been identified in Denmark, 

 Sweden or Norway, but several have been 

 identified with considerable certainty in 

 Iceland, chiefly through the investigations 

 of the Icelandic Antiquarian Society, and 

 also in Greenland, while a few have been 

 identified with fair certainty in the 'Vineland 

 the Good' of the Sagas— what is now east- 

 ern Massachusetts. The houses of the three 

 countries were illustrated and shown to be 

 essentially similar by means of photographs 

 and sketches of the ruins, and were identi- 

 fied in design and other characteristics with 

 the house- types still surviving in Iceland. 

 The paper was discussed by Dr. Boas, who 

 pointed out the essential distinctness of the 

 habitations described from those of the 

 aborigines of America,including the Eskimo- 

 Eemarks concerning the extent and thor- 

 oughness of the investigation were also 

 made by Dr. Beauchamp and the presiding 

 officer. 



The afternoon session began with a brief 

 paper on * Eskimo Boot Strings,' by John 

 Murdoch. This was followed by an ex- 

 tended ' Preliminary Report on the Soma- 

 tology of the Tribes of Northwestern 

 Mexico,' by Dr. A. Hrdlicka, in the course 

 of which a large number of crania from 

 Mexico and the United States were de- 

 scribed, while the distribution of the types 



