664 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 643 



the new field. Realistic and geometric 

 decoration upon pottery of necessity re- 

 acted upon each other, tending to produce 

 angularities in the former, and scrolls in 

 the latter. The predominance of either 

 form in the art of a people depends not 

 so much upon culture level as upon the 

 peculiar genius of that people. Geometric 

 designs degenerate in two ways; by com- 

 plication—the reduplication of parts and 

 addition of apparently meaningless flour- 

 ishes; and by simplification to some stri- 

 king characteristic — the law of essentials 

 in primitive art. 



For primitive man, the world around 

 was filled with sentient beings. Of these 

 he made his gods. Their symbols were, of 

 necessity, life-forms. The life-form passes 

 into the geometrical, and this, with the 

 growth of philosophic and religious 

 thought, is reinterpreted or degenerates 

 into meaningless ornament. A good ex- 

 ample is the swastika. The origin, mean- 

 ing and decay of the symbol were fully 

 discussed. 



Professor WiUiam P. Blake described an 

 'Aboriginal Race Course.' In the south- 

 ern portion of Yavapai County, Arizona, 

 at Peeples Valley, not far from the raneho 

 of Coles Bushford there is a remarkable 

 paved way, race course or stadium of un- 

 known but undoubtedly aboriginal origin. 

 It is in the form of an ellipse some hun- 

 dreds of feet in major length, and is paved 

 with rough blocks of granite of irregular 

 form for the full breadth of the roadway, 

 about a rod, as nearly as I can now remem- 

 ber. This way is bordered on each side by 

 large outlying boulders of gray granite 

 now partially overgrown by live-oak trees. 

 The largest of these boulders would ap- 

 pear to have been convenient for specta- 

 tors, but were probably placed by nature 

 along the borders of the two adjoining and 

 nearly parallel water courses, now dry. 



It may be supposed that this paved way 



was designed and used for foot-races. It 

 appears to be worthy of measurements and 

 a map. 



The closing number on the program was 

 a communication from Professor E. H. 

 Barbour on 'The Nebraska Loess Man,' 

 presented by Professor Henry B. Ward. 

 The discovery in question was made by 

 Mr. Robert F. Gilder in October, 1906, on 

 Long's hill facing the Missouri River, ten 

 miles north of Omaha. Long's hill stands 

 200 feet above the river. It is a hill of 

 erosion and no discoverable land slip has 

 complicated its simple geology. On its 

 summit is Gilder's mound, in the super- 

 ficial layer of which were found mound- 

 builder remains, and in the deep layer 

 eight skulls and many bones of a still more 

 primitive type. According to Professor 

 Barbour, there is evidence of burial in case 

 of the upper bone layer, but none in case 

 of the lower. The bones found in the un- 

 disturbed loess doubtless antedate the hill 

 itself. The loess in question rests on Kan- 

 san drift, and though as young as the 

 later Wisconsin sheet or younger, it is 

 nevertheless old. A more extended ac- 

 count may be found in Science for Janu- 

 ary 18, 1907; and in the Nebraska Geo- 

 logical Survey, volume II., Part 5. 



Papers were read by title as follows: 



Db. Nicolas Le6n : ' Foc-Lor Mexicano.' 



Mes. R. F. Hbkbick: (a) 'The Volcano of Bell 

 Springs ' ; ( 6 ) 'On the Preparation of Bone for 

 Certain Implements.' 



Mb. William Nelson: (a) 'Witchcraft in 

 Northern New Jersey in the Nineteenth Century'; 

 ( 6 ) ' The Use of Water Witches in Railroad 

 Building.' 



Db. a. M. Tozzeb : ' Maya Religion.' 



Db. Geo. F. Kxjnz : ' On the Aboriginal Use of 

 Turquoise on the American Continent.' 



Db. Ales Hedlicka : ' Racial Characteristics of 

 the Humerus.' 



Majob O. E. Woodbuff: 'The Disappearance 

 of Blond Types from the American Population.' 



Mb. James Mooney: 'The Decrease of the In- 

 dian Population.' 



Mb. S. p. Veeneb: (a) ' Iron and Copper Metal- 



