Jantjaet 1, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



35 



" Eesults of Eecent Magnetic Observations in 

 Mexico (1906-8)," by Felipe VaUe; "The 

 Magnetic Storms of September, 1908," by O. 

 H. Tittmann; "Letters to Editor," "Notes," 

 etc. 



TBE NEWEST ANCIENT MAN 



Yesterday (December 14) before the Acad- 

 emy of Sciences Professor Edmond Perrier, 

 director of the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle 

 exhibited a skull to which he ascribes a great 

 importance. The skull, together with other 

 parts of the skeleton (bones of the upper and 

 lower limbs), was found about six months ago 

 by two abbes (Bouyssonie and Bardon) in 

 some excavations being made near Chapelle- 

 aux-Saints in the Correze. 



The rock strata in which these bones were 

 found are, according to M. Perrier, of middle 

 Pleistocene age. 



The skull is that of a man of extremely 

 low type, an ape-man, or perhaps of a man-ape 

 of greater cranial capacity than any at present 

 known. This great cerebral development 

 leads M. Perrier to consider it, on the whole, 

 a human skull. But the very thick, low 

 cranial dome, the flattened forehead and pro- 

 nounced orbital ridges, the broad nose sepa- 

 rated from the forehead by a deep furrow, 

 and the much elongated snout-like maxillaries 

 combine to give the skull a marked gorilla-like 

 seeming. The brain cavity, however, is as 

 already said, very much larger than that of 

 the gorilla or any other present-day anthro- 

 poid. 



The limb bones are curved and present a 

 conformation which indicates that this Pleis- 

 tocene man walked more often on all-fours 

 than in an erect position. The bones seem to 

 be fairly intermediate between those of a man 

 and those of the present-day anthropoids. 



Altogether Professor Perrier (whose scien- 

 tific standing gives his opinions in the matter 

 high authority) believes that he has in his 

 hands — the specimens have been purchased by 

 the museum — remains much more ancient 

 than those of Neanderthal or Spy, and 

 actually representing a type intermediate be- 

 tween Pithecanthropus and present man. 



Those interested should watch for the more 

 detailed and authoritative report of Professor 

 Perrier's account which will appear in the 

 Comptes Bendus. 



Veenon L. Kellogg 

 Paeis, 



December 15 



THE INDIANA UNIVERSITY EXPEDITION 

 TO BRITISH GUIANA 



Professor Carl Eigenmann, dean of the 

 Graduate School of Indiana University, has 

 just returned from a four months' trip to 

 British Guiana, where he was engaged in the 

 study and collection of South American fishes. 

 He was accompanied by S. E. Shideler as a 

 volunteer assistant. Professor Eigenmann is 

 now engaged in a monograph of the fresh- 

 water fishes of tropical America. The trip to 

 British Guiana had three objects. It was in- 

 tended to collect as many species of fresh- 

 water fishes as possible from one of the South 

 American rivers flowing north; to photograph 

 living fishes, and to collect on the plateau of 

 Guiana. 



Eishes were collected near the mouths of 

 rivers from the Berbice River on the east to 

 Morawhana near the Orinoco on the west. 

 In the Demarara River collections were made 

 at Georgetown, at Nismar, near the head of 

 tide water, about sixty miles from the coast, 

 and at Malali, almost thirty miles further up 

 stream at the first rapids. 



In the Essequibo River collections were 

 made at Bartica, Rockstone, Crab Falls and 

 the Warraputa Cataract. 



Eor an attack on the Guiana Plateau the 

 Potaro River was selected. It is a tributary 

 of the Essequibo about ninety miles from the 

 coast. There are a series of short cataracts 

 with long stretches of navigable water in be- 

 tween. The first of the rapids are at Tuma- 

 tumari where extensive collections were made. 

 From the next rapids, near Potaro Landing a 

 path of seven miles brings one above the 

 Ichaura, Aurituk, Oobanatuk and Pakatuk 

 Cataracts to Cangaruma. From here on the 

 trip was continued with the boats and crew of 

 sixteen Indians, generously pxit at the service 

 of the expedition by Messrs. G. Linnel and 



