SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 421 



SCIENCE: 



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American Zoologists will certainly be glad to hear that the 

 Zoological Station at Naples is once more open to them. Through 

 the liberality of Major Alex. Henry Davis of New York a table 

 has been secured until January, 1892, and now awaits its occu- 

 pancy by some American investigator. Major Davis became in- 

 terested in the matter while in Naples last January, and paid for 

 a table during the current year in addition to promising his sup- 

 port and influence toward making the arrangement permanent. 

 The United States has been represented at the Naples Station but 

 twice since its foundation, although a score of American workers 

 have enjoyed its privileges vvithin that time. Williams College 

 held a table for two years, and the University of Pennsyh-ania 

 for one. Naturally the undertaking proved too expensive, and of 

 too little value to any one institution to warrant the permanent 

 maintenance of a table ; and during the past six years only such 

 Americans have been able to work there as have enjoyed the 

 personal courtesy of the director. Professor Anton Dohrn, or as 

 have been temporarily occupying tables of some European state. 

 Last year two American workers were at the station, dependent 

 upon the sufferance of German hospitality for their places, and 

 had the very doubtful pleasure of seeing every civilized nation 

 present in its representatives except their own. Now that the 

 United States no longer occupies the anomalous position of being 

 the richest and most prosperous nation of the world, and yet the 

 one most indifferent to this grand international undertaking, 

 American workers may hope to see the matter taken up by the 

 national authorities or in some other definite way that will assure 

 its permanency. 



Alexander Winchell, LL.D., of the University of Michigan, 

 died at Ann Arbor, Feb. 19. Professor Winchell was born at 

 North East, N.Y., on the 31st of December. 1824, and graduated 

 at Wesleyan University in 1847. The following year he became a 

 teacher of natural science at Amenia Seminary in New York 

 State, but only remained one year, removing in 1849 to Alabama, 

 where he continued his work as a teacher in connection with 

 several institutions. In 1854 he became professor of physics and 

 civil engineering in the University of Michigan, but a year later 

 he naturally gravitated to the professorship of geology and natural 

 science, retaining the position until 1872. In 1859 he was ap- 

 pointed by the State authorities director of the Geological Survey, 

 and pushed the work energetically until the outbreak of the war 

 arrested its further progress. He was again connected with the 

 survey in 1869, when it was resumed.but resigned two years later. 

 From 1866 to 1869 he also held the corresponding chair in con- 

 nection with the Kentucky University. In 1873 he left the Uni- 



versity of Michigan to accept the chancellorship of Syracuse 

 University, but held the place only one year, retiring to accept 

 the professorship of geology, zoology, and botany; and again 

 from 1875 to 1878 he did double duty, filling the same department 

 in Vanderbilt University in connection with his duties at Syracuse. 

 About this time he contributed a series of articles to the Northern 

 Christian Advocate, published in Auburn, N.Y,, in which he de- 

 fended a belief in the existence of a pre- Adamite race, and also 

 intimated his concurrence in the theory of evolution. For these 

 views, deemed unsound by the authorities of Vanderbilt Uni- 

 versity, he was called upon to resign his professorship, but refused, 

 and his lectureship was abolished Quite a prolonged and bitter 

 controversy was the result, and he fell into much disfavor among 

 many of his fellowship in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 

 1879 Professor Winchell was called to the chair of geology and 

 paleontology in the University of Michigan, which he retained 

 until his death. Among his works are many official reports and a 

 number of books on evolution, and extensive contributions to 

 scientific periodicals. His bibliography includes about two hun- 

 dred titles. 



THE ZIMBABYE AND OTHER RUINS IN MASHONA- 

 LAND. 



The following information regarding these famous ruins was 

 received from Mr. E. A. Maund by the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety, London, which he obtained from Mr. Phillips, in correction 

 and amplification of the remarks made by him at the meeting of 

 the society on the 24th of November, 1890.' 



Mr. Phillips was all over that part of the country in 1866, and 

 was with Mr. Hartley the year after, and saw many old gold- 

 diggings near the hill which then first got its name of Hartley 

 Hill. In 1868 he and Mr. Westbeach crossed the Hanyani and 

 went down the Mazoe. In October, 1871, he was hunting at the 

 junction of the Ingwesi and Lundi Rivers, when a letter was 

 brought to him from Herr Mauch. It was not signed, but the 

 writer reminded him of an adventure they had had together with 

 five lions on the Mahalapsi, so that he might identify him. Mauch 

 said he was living with a man named Renders (not Kinders), and 

 was in a bad plight, having been robbed of every thing except 

 his papers and gun. He begged him not to bring a Matabele 

 with him, as they were living among the Mashonas. Phillips 

 went and found Mauch and Adam Renders, an Amei-ican, living 

 on the top of a kopje, a few miles south-west of the ruins of 

 Zimbabye. It was a pretty place. A waterfall coming down 

 from the ridges above fell into a pan by the hut, in which it dis- 

 appeared, to come out again in a gushing fountain several hun- 

 dred feet below, a cave of refuge being close by, with water 

 flowing through it, to which they and their Mashona hosts could 

 fly, and barricade themselves in with a bowlder of rock, when 

 Matabele raiding parties were afoot. Mauch told him of some 

 ruins in the neighborhood, and next day the party went to see 

 them. 



It was really Renders who first discovered these ruins, three 

 years before Mauch saw them, though Mauch and Baines first 

 published them to the world, and they only described what the 

 old Portuguese writers quoted by Mr. Maund talked of hundreds 

 of years ago. Mauch, on their arrival at the Zimbabye ruins, 

 asked what they thought of them. He (Phillips) confessed he was 

 not greatly impressed, as they were exactly like several others he 

 had seen in other parts of the country. There were the same 

 zigzag patterns, and the mortarless walls of small hewn stones. 



Shortly before, when hunting in the mountains to the west of 

 Zimbabye, he had come upon a regular line of such ruins, one of 

 which must have been a very large place. It had three distinct 

 gateways in the outer wall, which were at least thirty feet thick 

 at the base; and an immense iron wood tree, that would have 

 taken hundreds of years to grow, had grown through a crevice in 

 the wall and rent it asunder. On the side of a gateway were vast, 

 heaps of ashes, with occasional potsherds about, the only evidence 

 of the old inhabitants. 



1 Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, January, 1891, p. 20. 



