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[Vol. XX. No. 509 



three years time he discovered by a pan-test that the same pile 

 had gold in it, whereupon he treated several tons with the 

 approximate result of one dollar per ton. After this last treat- 

 ment he declared the tailings were barren of gold so far as he 

 could detect by the mechanical means at hand. In order to con- 

 vince him I selected an average sample, which on assay gave 3 

 pennyweights, 30 grains gold per 3,000-pound ton. This was con- 

 sidered not worth the working. But my friend maintained that 

 the gold would grow again in two or three years. 



True to his word, in two years he was at tlie pile again, and by 

 his crude but sure method was saving one dollar per ton from the 

 ore that would yield nil by his methods two years before. Again, 

 I took samples for assay and was somewhat surprised to find the 

 value had increased just 50 per cent, as the result of my deter- 

 mination was 5 pennyweights, 16 grains per ton. On investiga- 

 tion, I found the sulphurets to be of a character readily decom- 

 posed by the elements; in fact to such an extent that, as I after- 

 wards calculated, over one-halt of the pile must have been de- 

 composed or washed away, so that with the decomposition a cer- 

 tain rapid concentration was maintained by the action of heavy 

 rains, and the natural advantage this particular ground offered 

 causing the gold to remain behind while the oxides were carried 

 away in suspension by the water. My explanation has failed to 

 convince my friend of the pick and shovel. As tlie gold in the 

 tailings has become about exhausted, his last attempt to make 

 pay was a failure. He remains strong in the conviction that a 

 few years will grow it again. 



Gold Hill, North Carolina, October, 1898. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.— XVIII. 



[Edited by D. G. Brinton, M.D., LL.D.] 



The Early Age of Metals in Europe. 



As has been previously remarked in these Notes, there is a 

 growing tendency in European archaeology to rate the civilization 

 of Europe at the dawn of the historic period decidedly higher 

 than has been heretofore supposed, and to regard it more and 

 more of indigenous development. Those old theories which at- 

 tributed pretty much all that deserved the name of culture to 

 Asiatic or Egyptian sources are diminishing in favor. 



An instance of this is seen in an article by M. Salomon Reinach 

 in VAnthropologie, 1893, No. 3, in which he discusses with his 

 accustomed wealth of erudition the derivation of the name " Cas- 

 siterides," and with it the origin of tin and bronze in western 

 Europe. He claims that this name is of Celtic origin, and 

 means " Remote,"' or something of that kind. It was applied by 

 the Gauls to the portion of western England whence came the 

 tin. This conclusion proves several points, if once accepted. As 

 Homer talks of the Cassiterides, it shows that before his time the 

 tribes of western France spoke Celtic; that they worked in and 

 expoited metals ; and it gives room to inquire whether one of the 

 centres of the discovery of bronze was not in western Europe. 



Other archaeologists of ability, such as Franz von Pulszky, in 

 the Archiv fiir Anthropologie, Bd., XX., have called attention to 

 the fact that the specific civilization of the Celts was liigher than 

 is generally recognized. Their heavy iron swords, for striking, 

 not thrusting, their ornamentation, derived from the circle and 

 the triangle, and their use of torques, wound metal neck-rings, 

 reveal positive ethnic art-capacity. Their presence in Hungary is 

 well marked by such remains in the tombs of an early epoch. 



Figurines of the Stone Age. 



The glyptic art goes back far into the stone age, far even into 

 the old or rough stone age. In the Antiqua for 1887-1890, R. 

 Ferrer has discussed and depicted the earliest human statuettes 

 from the European bronze and stone ages. The oldest always 

 represent the individual naked, and the parts of sex very prom- 

 inent. This is also the case with the Phoenician bronze figurines 

 from Ellora, in Portugal, while those from the north are clothed. 



Last December there were found some interesting remains 

 near Brunn, Germany, at a depth of four and a half meters, 

 amid bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and reindeer. They 



were a human skull, and adjacent to it a human figurine 20 

 centimeters high, carved from the tooth of a mammoth, and 

 bored through, evidently for the purpose of suspension. The figure 

 is naked and prominently masculine, though the mammae are 

 clearly represented. 



The skull presented an index of 65.68, and was therefore singu- 

 larly dolichocephalic; its estimated cubical capacity was 1,350 

 cubic centimeters; it was not prognathic, but the frontal sinuses 

 were very prominent, and the glabella also, thus presenting an 

 inferior character. 



When the head of the figurine is regarded in profile, it presents 

 this peculiar appearance of prominence in the glabellar region, 

 thus showing that it was carved to imitate the then prevailing type 

 of humanity. 



These and other interesting facts about this noteworthy find are 

 given in the Proceedings of the Niederrheinische Gesellsohaft, 

 1893, by Professor Schaaff hausen of Bonn, who adds an engraving 

 of the skull. Like all his articles, this one is prepared with the 

 most satisfactory care. 



The Study of Hair. 



The study of the hair on man offers a most extensive field of in- 

 quiry, and one which presents many unsolved problems of the first 

 order of importance. Some of these are discussed by F. Lapille 

 in Le Naturaliste and by Dr. Bartels in the Zeitschrift fur Ethnol- 

 ogie of recent dates. 



Why man as a species should present the amount and kind of 

 hair that he does is variously explained, and the differences be- 

 tween the varieties of the human race are so great in this respect 

 that, as is well known, one of the most popular subdivisions of 

 the species is founded upon it. Most mammals have more hair 

 than man, but some less, as the Cetaceae and the Sirenidge. The 

 anthropoid apes have, as a rule, much hair where man has little, 

 as in the arm- pits and around the sex-organs. In some localities, 

 as the ears and nose, the hairs are clearly protective organs, while 

 around the genitals they appear to be merely ornamental. In 

 monkeys, the females are bearded, but such examples are rare in 

 the human species. Bearded women, however, are not otherwise 

 masculine, but have the sentiments and the capacity for mother- 

 hood. Bartels describes a very hairy Gypsy girl, only seventeen 

 years old, but already the mother of three children. With her 

 the hairiness was from a naevus pigmentosus of extraordinary 

 extent; and why these naevi should develop hairs is worth in- 

 quiry. Man has the longest hair of any animal, and why he lost 

 it over most of his body is the subject of much curious specula- 

 tion. The loss led him to the inventions of painting and tattooing 

 his body, of covering it with clay or clothes, to depilation, to the 

 sense of modesty, and to many -other unexpected results. The 

 history of hair in man is thus an extraordinary one for the evolu- 

 tion of the species. 



On Quarry-Rejects. 



For two or three years past there has been in the air — I mean 

 the air which archaeologists breathe — a low but menacing sound, 

 threatening some dear theories and tall structures, built, if not 

 on sand, at least on gravels offering a scarcely more secure foun- 

 dation. 



These menaces bear more directly on what is classically known 

 as the " old stone age,'' that of chipped implements, and particu- 

 larly on that period of it which is alleged to be characterized by 

 very rude — and which are therefore supposed to be very old — 

 types. The new views come from a study of the aboriginal quar- 

 ries, the sites where the ancient tribes collected the materials 

 which later and at other localities they worked up into finely 

 chipped or polished implements. This part of the work they 

 did not perform at the quarry; and pieces which after a few test- 

 blows by their skilled hands they saw could not be utilized at all, 

 or only at the cost of considerable labor, they threw aside and 

 left on the spot. These are " quarry-rejects," and after you have 

 handled and studied several hundreds of them you can always 

 see why they were thrown away ; you can recognize, as did the 

 aboriginal artist, why they would prove worthless or troublesome 

 in further working. 



