304 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No 512 



Up to date only about 5,000 tons of bauxite has ever been 

 shipped from Alabama. It has gone to Pliiladelphia and Natrona, 

 Peon., and to Syracuse, Buffalo, and Brooklyn, N.Y., and to other 

 places. It has been used principally for the manufacture of alum 

 by the sulphuric acid method. The Alabama ores cannot be laid 

 down in the above markets as cheaply as the Baux ores, and hence, 

 if it was not for their superiority, they could not compete at all 

 with the Baux ores. As it is, the profits are said to be small, 

 and so it is not likely that the bauxite industry of Alabama will 

 become very great until a home market is created for the ore. 

 This, it is hoped, will soon be the case, as an aluminum plant is 

 said to be now under way near Rome, Ga. 



THE INTRODUCTION OF FOREIGN SPECIES. 



BY JOHN GIFFOBD. 



Natuee maintains an equilibrium, and when this is interfered 

 with by man evils ensue which are even more serious than the 

 one he attempts to obviate. No man can predict the results of 

 the introduction of an exotic animal or plant. Such a step 

 should be attended with more study and caution than are usually 

 exercised. One animal preys upon another to such an extent 

 that by the introduction of other species the damage indirectly 

 done is much more real than apparent. 



When the cultivation of cane and the manufacture of sugar, 

 molasses, and rum were at the height of their glory, the planta- 

 tions of Jamaica were infested by rats. In order to rid the island 

 of this pest the mongoose was introduced from India. In spite of 

 the damage done to some of the domestic animals of the small 

 property owners, the result was on the whole at first beneficial, 

 since the prosperity of the island depended upon the products of 

 the large plantations. Times changed, and the sugar industry 

 faded. The negroes now have their own patches, and being 

 favored by an indulgent Nature, with low ambitions and few 

 wants, are forced to keep dogs to protect their poultry. They 

 feel the loss of a pullet more than ever before. This class of 

 people constitutes more than half the population. The mongoose 

 has been increasing, and other small animals in consequence de- 

 creasing. Snakes are now extremely scarce, and many of the 

 birds which nest on the ground have been destroyed. This animal 

 inhabits both the lowlands and mountains, so that rats and mice 

 take refuge in banana bunches, where they often build their 

 nests. But these are only the direct consequences. Animals 

 upon which this animal preyed fed upon other animals, especially 

 insects. These have increased accordingly. Tics, for instance, 

 which they say were introduced on South American cattle, have 

 become an awful pest. There was no enemy to subject them, 

 and only those who have walked through the beautiful pastures 

 of this island, shaded with pimento and ceiba trees, can judge of 

 their abundance. In crossing a pasture your legs become covered 

 with these parasites, which, unless removed at once, bury in the 

 flesh and cause much pain. While botanizing in the region of 

 Mandeville, in the mountains, after each excursion the writer 

 was forced to undergo a tedious operation : it was to have these 

 tics picked out of the skin by negro boys, who have become expert 

 by long practice, and many are the sixpences they have thus 

 earned. 



Out of revenge the Indians introduced the fer-de-lance, the ug- 

 liest and deadliest of reptiles, into Martinique and other West 

 Indian islands This snake increases rapidly in numbers, and 

 many are its victims yearly. By the thickness of its skin the 

 pig, and by its agility the cat, alone withstand this animal. Thus 

 what they failed to do in war the Indians accomplished by a 

 peculiar stratagem. 



The abominable life-plant was introduced, perhaps as a curi- 

 osity, into certain parts of the West Indies. It has become a 

 troublesome weed. It is impossible to combat or exterminate it. 

 It grows in spite of you. Cut it up as you like, and it will sprout. 

 Pull it up and hang it in a dry place or put it in your pocket, and 

 from every indentation on the edges of its leaves there will come 

 a sprout. 



Every visitor to Nassau knows of the Giant Ceiba, with its far- 

 leaching branches and curious butresses on the public plaza. 



This was planted by John Miller, and its history is of interest in 

 showing how accidentally and rapidly the introduction of a 

 species may be effected. He was a sea-captain, and traded to 

 Brazil. He admired the ceibas so much that he brought home a 

 seed or sprout to plant in his garden in one of our southern cities. 

 He was a Loyalist; and when the War of the Revolution began 

 he went to Nassau with his ceiba tree. This is the tree to. which 

 I refer — a tree many times photographed and described, the ob- 

 ject of much admiration and the pride of Nassau. From the 

 seeds of this others have come until now it is one of the com- 

 monest trees of the Bahamas. Thus animals and plants of benefit 

 and detriment to a country have been almost everywhere acci- 

 dentally introduced. In spite of warnings, grape-cuttings were 

 introduced from America into Europe, and with them went the 

 diseases of our vine with serious consequences. No matter how 

 beneficial the introduction of a foreign species may at first ap- 

 pear, a sort of quarantine should be established, the government 

 alone taking it in hand, introducing species only, after much 

 study, with much caution. 

 Now Orleans, Nov. 5. 



PALEOLITHIC MAN IN THE SOUTHERN PORTION OF THE 

 DELAWARE VALLEY. 



BY DR. HILBOBNE T. CBESSON, PHILADELPHIA, PBNN. 



The revival of the old feud in regard to palEeolithic man is cer- 

 tainly a most interesting one, and I fully concur with my friend, 

 Professor G. Frederick Wright, that "full discussion will dispel 

 the uncertainty that may exist." 



A great deal has been said about the finds in the Wilmington 

 gravels (Columbian of McGee), and I notice that for some inex- 

 plicable reason the finds of others than myself have been ig- 

 nored. I will give, presently, a brief resume of the finds in sup- 

 posed Columbian deposits, but before doing so it may be well to 

 explain that I am not a professed geologist, but I do claim to 

 have had the opportunity, by reason of a residence of twenty 

 years in the vicinity of Wilmington, to study the aqueous de- 

 posits in that vicinity, and at times, in company with those who 

 are authorities upon the subject. I take ijleasure in quoting the 

 names of Professors McGee and Wright and the late Professor 

 Lewis. Messrs. McGee and Wright visited the Wilmington 

 gravels at my request, and the former gentleman was accom- • 

 panied by so distinguished an archaeologist as Jlr. W. H. Holmes 

 of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology. It was my good fortune to 

 meet Professor Lewis at Claymont, during visits that he made to 

 relatives who lived in a property adjoining my fathers, and in 

 these, our youthful days, we jnade many excursions over the 

 gravels and brick clays which now bear his name. As Dr. Ab- 

 bott suggests, in a recent publication in Science, " When I find 

 gravel stratified and unstratified, I know and assert the differ- 

 ence," and it may be suggested, vv'ithout conceit, that those w^ho 

 have spent years in studying glacial deposits, and searching 

 among them for evidences of primitive man, aided at times by 

 suggestions from the full-fledged geologist, ought to have some 

 slight development of the perceptive faculty, in this respect, and 

 be able to judge whether the condition of the gravels, in ques- 

 tion, was disturbed or undisturbed, as the case may be. 



During Professor McGee's visit to the Wilmington gravels (I 

 have designated them thus, as Carpenter Station, on the Balti- 

 more & Ohio Railroad, is but a few miles distant from this place), 

 Mr. Holmes found what is now called, at the Peabody Museum, 

 Harvard University, ''the Holmes Palffiolith." It is a piece of 

 white quartz, bearing, according to the opinion of Professor Put- 

 nam, Dr. Abbott, Professor Wright, and Professor Wilson, evi- 

 dences of artificial fracture. When the quartz in question was 

 found by Mr. Holmes, I requested Professor McGee to examine 

 the place from which it had been taken. He pronounced it to have 

 been found in undisturbed Columbian deposits, but I here call 

 especial attention to the fact that neither Holmes nor McGee- 

 deem the implement in question to be artificial. The palteolith 

 was then submitted to Dr. D. G. Brinton for examination, who 

 also condemned it. There is this to be said, however, that when 



