August 11, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



195 



with equal certainty be joined up into a 

 cultural chain uniting Egypt to America. 



In almost every one of the focal points 

 along this great migration route the folk- 

 lore of to-day has preserved legends of the 

 culture-heroes who introduced some one or 

 other of the elements of this peculiarly dis- 

 tinctive civilization. 



Those familiar with the literature of 

 ethnology must be acquainted with hun- 

 dreds of scraps of corroborative evidence 

 testifying to the reality of the spread 

 postulated. For I have mentioned only 

 a small part of the extraordinary cargo 

 of bizarre practises and beliefs with which 

 these ancient mariners (carrying of course 

 their characteristic ideas of naval construc- 

 tion and craftsmanship) set out from the 

 African coast more than twenty-five cen- 

 turies ago on the great expedition which 

 eventually led their successors some cen- 

 turies later to the New World. 



At every spot where they touched and 

 tarried, whether on the coasts of Asia, the 

 islands of the Pacific or on the continent .of 

 America, the new culture took root and 

 flourished in its own distinctive manner, as 

 it was subjected to the influence of the 

 aborigines or to that of later comers of 

 other ideas and traditions; and each place 

 became a fresh focus from which the new 

 knowledge continued to radiate for long 

 ages after the primary inoculation. 



The first great cultural wave (or the 

 series of waves of which it was composed) 

 continued to flow for several centuries. It 

 must have begun some time after B.C. 900, 

 because the initial equipment of the great 

 wanderers included practises which were 

 not invented in Egypt until that time. The 

 last of the series of ripples in the great wave 

 set out from India just after the practise of 

 cremation made its appearance there, for at 

 the end of the series the custom of inciner- 



ating the dead made its appearance in Indo- 

 nesia, Polynesia, Mexico and elsewhere. 



In asking you to publish this crude 

 sketch of views which I have set forth in 

 greater detail elsewhere 1 I wish especially 

 to appeal to that band of American ethnol- 

 ogists, whose devoted labors in rescuing the 

 information concerning the ethnography of 

 their country have called forth the admira- 

 tion of all anthropologists, seriously to re- 

 consider the significance of the data they 

 are amassing. 



G. Elliot Smith 



THE PRODUCTION OF TUNGSTEN 



The tungsten production of the United 

 States during the first six months of 1916 ex- 

 ceed the production of this or any other coun- 

 try in any previous twelve months. Prices 

 were even more phenomenal than production 

 and reached more than ten times their ordi- 

 nary level. The output was equivalent to 

 about 3,290 short tons of concentrates carry- 

 ing 60 per cent. WOa, valued at $9,113,000, ac- 

 cording to an estimate made by Frank L. Hess, 

 of the United States Geological Survey, De- 

 partment of the Interior. Statistics are valu- 

 able only so far as their accuracy is known, 

 and this estimate is believed to be correct 

 within 10 per cent, and to be under rather than 

 over the true figures. 



These figures are no less noteworthy when it 

 is known that in 1915 much the larger part of 

 the production was in the second half of the 

 year, so that the total domestic output for the 

 twelve months ending June 30, 1916, probably 

 amounted to about 5,000 tons. 



Colorado has regained its lead in the pro- 

 duction of tungsten ores and, between January 

 1 and June 30, marketed 1,505 tons, valued at 

 $3,638,000, of which the Boulder field fur- 

 nished 1,494 tons. California sold 984 tons, 

 valued at $3,005,000. The reason for the 

 higher value of the California ore was that it 



i ' ' The Significance of the Geographical Distri- 

 bution of the Practise of Mummification, ' ' now 

 being published in the Memoirs of the Literary 

 and Philosophical Society of Manchester. 



