June 1, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



497 



and under another altar-mound were eigbteen pits of 

 smaller size, but of similar character. Beneath a 

 small mound containing skeletons was an excava- 

 tion, six feet wide and twenty-seven inches deep, 

 filled with ashes mixed with animal bones, pot- 

 sherds, and other objects. This is tlie first time 

 that pits of tills character have been discovered in 

 connection with the mounds; and their presence 

 gives an additional interest to this gi'oup. In an- 

 other mound, containing a human skeleton, a small 

 copper celt was found on the bones of a hand, which 

 is of special interest, as it has a cast of the papillae 

 of the fingers distinctly preserved in the carbonate of 

 copper, tinder the centre of one mound was a bed 

 of ashes, in which were three pottery vessels. 



Dr. Metz also examined a conical mound on the 

 farm of Mr. Gould, about two miles from Reading, 

 on an elevated and commanding site. The mound 

 was six feet high, and sixty feet in diameter at the 

 base. An earth embankment, three feet high and 

 twenty-two feet wide at its base, encloses the mound, 

 forming a circle about it one hundred and fifty feet 

 in diameter, with an opening thirty-seven feet wide 

 looking to the south-east. The mound was found to 

 be stratified ; the outer layer was composed of fifteen 

 inches of very hard yellow clay; under this was a 

 layer, ten inches in thickness, of hard clay, burnt 

 to a brick-red color, and mixed with ashes and char- 

 coal ; below this was a stratum fifteen inches in thick- 

 ness of compact grayish ashes containing pieces of 

 burnt stone; beneath this again ten inches of burnt 

 clay, in which were a small chipped flint and a frag- 

 ment of burnt bone, which was the only piece of 

 bone found in the mound ; beneath this last stratum, 

 and occupying the central portion of the mound, was 

 a conical heap of hard gray earth in which were small 

 flakes of charcoal. This gray earth was so hard that 

 it could only be removed by the use of the pick : it was 

 eight by ten feet in diameter, and twenty-two inches 

 in thickness in the centre. Under this hard mass, 

 and below the natural surface of the clay, were four 

 circular pockets or excavations about four inches 

 apart, each of which was ten inches deep and four- 

 teen inches wide; three of them were filled with a 

 dark pasty substance, wliich became hard on drying, 

 and the other contained fragments of stone, burnt 

 clay, and earth. The structure of this mound is un- 

 usual; and the purpAse for which it was erected over 

 the four small holes is at present unknown, adding 

 one more to the problems relating to the mounds, 

 which we can only hope to solve by thoroughly ex- 

 ploring such as have not yet been disturbed. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 Since the first pages of this issue were in form, 

 it has been annoimced that a party for the relief of 

 the observers under Lieut. Greely at Lady Franklin 

 Bay will leave St. Johns, Newfoundland, on one of 

 the steam sealing-vessels belonging at that port, about 

 June 15, probably accompanied by a naval vessel 

 as tender. It will be commanded by Lieut. E. A. 

 Garlington, U.S.A., and comiMsed of twelve men, 

 of whom ten are'stated to be old sailors and accus- 

 tomed to the use of boats. Twenty dogs, native 

 drivers, and a supply of fur clothing, have been se- 

 cured at Godhavn, Greenland. The party at Lady 

 Franklin Bay will be reached and withdrawn if the 

 state of the ice permits. If not, the relief-party is 



to be landed on Littleton Island; and, while part of 

 them are engaged in preparing winter quarters, Lieut. 

 Garlington will endeavor to open communication by 

 sledges with Greely's people. In the failure of the 

 first attempt, another will be made in the spring of 

 1884. It is to be hoped, if Greely is not reached, 

 that an attempt will be made to leave at Cape 

 Hawkes or Cape Sabine, if not the i-elief-party as a 

 whole, which would be best, at least a boat by which 

 the open water to be anticipated between those 

 points and Littleton Island next year (1884) maybe 

 passed by a retreating party, which might well find 

 their own boat unseaworthy after dragging it over 

 many miles of hummocky ice, if, indeed, they did not 

 find themselves obliged to abandon it. 



— The schooner Leo is on the point of sailing for 

 Point Barrow to withdraw the signal-service observ- 

 ing party under Lieut. Ray, in compliance with the 

 act passed by the last Congress. To utilize the op- 

 portunity, Mr. Marr of the U. S. coast-survey will 

 accompany the vessel with the design of making 

 absolute magnetic determinations, of fixing the astro- 

 nomical position of the station, and of making pen- 

 dulum observations. 



— In 1880 the French minister of public instruction 

 appointed a commission to investigate the zoology and 

 physical features of the deep sea under the direction 

 of M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards. It carried on its 

 investigations that year principally in tlie Bay of 

 Biscay; in 1881, in the Mediterranean; and, in 1882, 

 in the Atlantic as far as the Canaries. This year it 

 will push its researches farther in the Atlantic as far 

 as the region opposite the coast of Senegal and in the 

 Sargasso Sea. The present commission is composed 

 of Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards, president ; the 

 Marquis de Folins; Professors Leon Vaillant and 

 Edmond Perrier, of the Paris museum ; M. Fischer, 

 aide-naturaliste at the same establishment; and Pro- 

 fessors Marion of Marseilles and Filhol of Toulouse ; 

 MM. Charles Brongniart and Henry Villaine, of 

 Paris, are also attached to the commission as ' mem- 

 bres adjoints.' 



— By the programme for the summer meeting of 

 the American institute of mining engineers, the 

 opening session will be held in Roanoke, Va., on 

 June 4. A visit to Lynchburg will be made on June 

 5. On arrival at Lynchburg, a train will take the 

 party to the iron-mines on the James River, at River- 

 ville, and, if time allows, also to Stapleton. In the 

 afternoon a session of the institute will be held. 

 Return to Roanoke in the evening. On June 6 there 

 are to be local excursions around Roanoke, visiting 

 the Crozer furnace, Upland and Houston mines, 

 Rorer iron company's mines, and the Roanoke ma- 

 chine-works; evening session. June 7, excursion to 

 Pocahontas (Flat Top coal-fields), and the South- 

 west Virginia improvement company's coal-mines 

 and coke-ovens.. Returning, the Ripplemead mines 



