Mabch 30, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



491 



origin of the barrier by which this exclu- 

 sion of the sea was effected, are as great in 

 the one ease as in the other, but in neither 

 greater than the difficulties met in account- 

 ing for the other great fresh-water forma- 

 tion of the coastal plain— the Lafayette. 



In the case of this Lafayette formation, 

 two explanations of its origin have been 

 offered, viz. : 



(1) That it was deposited along the bor- 

 ders of the Gulf and Atlantic during a 

 period of depression, when the shore line 

 was at the landward margin of the forma- 

 tion, and that the deposit was, therefore, a 

 marine or estuarine one. 



To this the structure of the formation, 

 its position upon a deeply eroded surface, 

 and the entire absence of fossil remains 

 appear to be well-nigh insuperable ob- 

 jections. 



(2) That the materials were drifted 

 down the channels of ancient streams, in 

 places coincident in position with the mod- 

 ern streams, and were thus of the nature 

 of alluvial fans. All this would naturally 

 happen during a period of elevation rather 

 than of depression. In Alabama, the La- 

 fayette does not seem to be confined to 

 well-marked channels such as Dr. Hilgard 

 finds in Mississippi, but it appears to have 

 been spread over the whole face of the 

 coastal plain of the Gulf as well as of the 

 Atlantic, reminding one of a coalescence of 

 alluvial fans on- a large scale, as they spread 

 out upon the plain, much after the fashion 

 of the ice of the Piedmont type of glacier 

 as displayed by the Malaspina. This view 

 of the genesis of the formation would ac- 

 count for many of the phenomena, and 

 certainly for the absolute lack of all trace 

 of fossils. 



In the nature of their materials ; beds of 

 sand often intricately false-bedded and of 

 bright colors; beautifully laminated and 

 gaily colored clays; great beds of massive 

 clays of every variety, white, gray, reddish. 



purple and vai'iously mottled; in their 

 structure and in the general impression 

 which they make upon the observer in the 

 field, the two formations, Potomac and 

 Grand Gulf, are astonishingly alike, so that 

 in the absence of fossils it would be impos- 

 sible to distinguish the one from the other 

 if both occurred in the same area. On the 

 other hand, the Lafayette has a character 

 of its own, different from either, and so 

 well marked that the observer with any rea- 

 sonable degree of experience will scarcely 

 ever remain long in doubt as to its identity 

 or be likely to confound it with anything 

 else, even though it holds no fossils to guide 

 him. 



Eugene A. Smith. 

 University of Alabama. 



ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE SOUTH AFRICAN 

 MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIA- 

 TION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF 

 SCIENCE, 1905. 



Only a few communications were brought 

 by the over.-sea members, and they all had 

 a bearing upon South African anthropol- 

 ogy. The president's address presented a 

 brief summary of our knowledge of South 

 African anthropology and pointed out lines 

 for future inquiry, with an urgent appeal 

 for immediate and more thorough investi- 

 gation in the field. Mr. Henry Balfour 

 gave an account (illustrated by lantern 

 slides) of certain musical instruments of 

 South Africa, dealing more especially with 

 the musical-bow group of instruments. 

 Mr. E. S. Hartland read an elaborate paper 

 on the totemism of the Bantu, in which he 

 pointed out that the totemism of the Bantu 

 had been of a type similar to that of the 

 Australians and North American Indians, 

 but that every^vhere it has fallen into decay 

 and become more or less replaced by an- 

 cestor worship, and concomitantly father- 

 right has replaced mother-right. Professor 

 F. von Luschan gave an abundantly illus- 



