June 12, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



861 



CLIMATE OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



In a recent account of the Falkland Is- 

 lands (Scot. Geogr. Mag., May, 1896, 241- 

 252) mention is made of a striking effect of 

 the high winds which are characteristic of 

 the higher latitudes of the South Temperate 

 Zone and are a marked feature of the cli- 

 mate of the Falklands. Owing to their be- 

 ing obliged constantly to beat against these 

 violent winds, the inhabitants have ac- 

 quired a peculiar gait that is so noticeable 

 as to have gained for them the name of 

 ' kelpers,' which is sometimes used as syn- 

 onymous with ' natives.' E. De C. Ward. 



Harvard University. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 BAOIAL ELEMENTS IN ASSAM. 



In the Times of Assam, February 8, 1896, 

 Mr. S. E. Peal gives the results of his ex- 

 tensive studies of the racial constitution of 

 the Assamese people. The aboriginal in- 

 habitants he believes to have been Dravid- 

 ian, though at present he would not assign 

 more than five per cent, to that element. 

 They were overlaid by the intrusive Mon 

 from the east, a monosyllabic stock, who in 

 time were followed by a small invasion of 

 Tibetans. All of these were weak and of 

 low culture. The Hindu religions, the 

 Aryan physique and the prevailing tongue 

 were introduced by the immigration of 

 Sanskrit-speaking conquerors at a remote 

 epoch. They left such a profound impress 

 on the earlier population and the existing 

 Assamese language that Mr. Peal says of 

 it : " With the exception of the Bengali, 

 there is probably no derivative from the 

 Sanskrit that bears a closer affinity to its 

 parent." This was the extreme limit of 

 the wave of Aryan migration which swept 

 eastward across Bengal. The conquering 

 Ahoms, from Siam, who in later centuries 

 gained temporary control of Assam, exerted 

 little permanent influence on its civilization 

 or language. 



THE TUPI LINGUISTIC STOCK. 



The eighteenth volume of the Biblio- 

 theque Linguistique Americaine (Maison- 

 neuve, Paris), which has just appeared, is a 

 valuable member of the series. It presents 

 thri elements of a comparative grammar 

 of the dialects of the Tupi linguistic stock 

 of South America, prepared by the able 

 pen of M. Lucien Adam, to whom we owe 

 so many analyses of American tongues. 

 The southern Tupi is known as the Guarani; 

 and the 'Lingoa Geral,' spoken throughout 

 Brazil, is a corrupt form of the same idiom. 

 The stock is widely diffused, extending 

 from Paraguay to Guiana, and for thou- 

 sands of miles along the Amazon and its 

 tributaries. Its literature is quite extended, 

 the bibliography of it published in 1880 by 

 Valle Cabral, numbering over three hun- 

 dred titles. 



M. Adam presents an analysis, carried 

 through the principal dialects, of the pho- 

 netic laws of the stock, the expressions of 

 the relations of possession and action 

 (genitive and nominative), the pronouns, 

 and an elaborate study of the conjugation. 

 A comparative vocabulary with 358 titles 

 is an extremely useful appendage. 



The collation of the literature which he 

 has utilized includes most of the best works, 

 but I regret not to see included the excel- 

 lent studies on the Neengatu of the late Mr. 

 C. F. Hartt. 



D. G. Brinton. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



THE COLORS NAMED IN LITERATURE. 



Mr. Havelock Ellis has made (Contempo- 

 rary Review, May) an interesting study of the 

 color terms used by imaginative writers, which 

 is a real contribution to scientific esthetics. 

 The fact that the Greeks did not name green 

 and blue does not, of course, indicate (as Mr. 

 Gladstone and others have alleged) that they 

 could not see the more refrangible rays of the 

 spectrum, hut it does show a lack of interest in 



