62 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 54. 



on the southern slope of the Alp gradually 

 gathers a little stream, the Brenz, as ap- 

 pears on the next sheet (607). Railroads 

 crossing the Alp at Geislingen and Ebingen. 

 further southwest, are similarly located; 

 thus exemplifying the principle announced 

 by Oldham (Science, II., 688). There 

 are three sheets, 559, 574, and 590, of 

 somewhat earlier issue on which the deep- 

 incised meanders of the Neckar and its 

 abandoned loops are beautifully portrayed. 



TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP OF DENMARK, 1:100,000. 



The beautiful sheets of this series, 

 printed in six colors for different soils and 

 cultures, with most delicate expression, have 

 comparatively little of importance to show 

 of the flat inland topography, but exhibit 

 many interesting coastal outlines. 



On the inland waters of Limijord (Log- 

 stor sheet), the shore frequently swings in 

 curves of small radius or projects in fine 

 sharp spits, appropriate to the easy turning 

 of literal currents of small volume and 

 strength; but on the exposed coast of the 

 west and north, facing on North sea, the 

 shore is modulated in long sweeping, curves, 

 adjusted to the slow swinging of the larger 

 bodies of water there in movement. The 

 Thisted sheet and others of previous issue 

 as far north as. Skagen, contain many ex- 

 amples of this kind. This recalls the dif- 

 ferent scale of meanders adopted by small 

 brooks and large rivers. The offset, or 

 outstanding position of one stretch of shore- 

 line with respect to the next, may be taken 

 to indicate the up-stream portion of the 

 prevailing litoral current ; this feature also 

 being neatly shown on the North sea coast 

 of the Thisted sheet, where the current 

 seems to come from the southwest. Along 

 the eastern coast, a north-to-south move- 

 ment is implied by the offset of the coast 

 north of the outlet of Limfjord compared to 

 that on the south ( Aalborg sheet) ; and this 

 is clearly confirmed by the long sandbar of 



Stensnses near by, tangentially overlapping 

 southward (Frederikshavn sheet). 



W. M. Davis. 



Harvard University. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 THE ETHNOLOGY OF MADAGASCAR. 



The occupation of the island of Mada- 

 gascar by the French, in the year 1895, led 

 to the publication of a number of articles 

 on the history, languages and ethnology of 

 the island. The two which I have found 

 most instructive are one in the Revue Scien- 

 tifique, by Prof. E. T. Hamy, ' Les Races 

 Humaines de Madagascar,' and one in the 

 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 

 by J. T. Last, ' on the languages of Mada- 



It is gratifying to find that both agree on 

 the main question involved — the relation- 

 ship of the oldest historic inhabitants of 

 the island. This is distinctly 7iot African, 

 as many have supposed ; nor is it Arabic, 

 as some have argued ; but it is ' Indone- 

 sian,' or ' Malayo-Polynesian,' that is, the 

 earliest known possessors of the soil came 

 from Malasia and Melanesia, and belonged 

 to the so-called ' brown race.' Their lan- 

 guage to this day is strongly affined to the 

 Malayan ; and this is true not merely of 

 the dominant Hovas, but of the mass of 

 the people. For about a thousand years, 

 however, there has been a constant impor- 

 tation of negroes from Africa, and an ar- 

 rival of colonists from the northern Sem- 

 ites; and these two admixtures have deeply 

 tinged the blood of the stock. 



PRE-GLACIAL MAN IN ENGLAND. 



Professor Joseph Prestwich has lately 

 published a volume entitled ' Collected 

 Papers on some Controverted Questions in 

 Geology' (London, 1895). Two of these 

 papers have a deep interest for the anthro- 

 pologist, one on the glacial period with refer- 

 ence to the antiquity of man in western 



