40 



SCIENCE. 



[N. g. Vol. VIII. No. 184. 



give a vivid impression of primitive pro- 

 cesses and serve to contrast these with tlie 

 methods and machinery of advanced civil- 

 ization. The subjects presented are as 

 follows : 



Tlie fire maker. A Ute Indian making 

 fire by twirling between the palms of his 

 hands a wooden shaft, with its point set 

 into a conical depression in a second piece 

 of wood. 



The driller. An Eskimo man, in reindeer 

 skin costume, using a bow drill for per- 

 forating an ivory ornament. 



The flint flaker. A Powhatan Indian 

 roughing out stone implements from quartz- 

 ite bowlders. 



The hominy huUer. A Southern Indian 

 woman pounding corn in a wooden mortar. 

 Figure in plaster with costume restored 

 from drawings made by members of the 

 Virginia colonies. 



The skin dresser. A Sioux woman using a 

 scraping or graining tool in preparing a 

 buffalo robe. 



The potter. A Papago Indian woman 

 modeling an earthen vessel. 



The metal worker. A ]N"avajo Indian mak- 

 ing silver ornaments. Processes probably, 

 in part at least, introduced by whites. 



The belt weaver. A Zuni girl with primi- 

 tive loom weaving a belt. 

 . These exhibits form a part of the series 

 now in course of preparation for the Na- 

 tional Museum, and are mere outlines of 

 the subjects as they will finally be pre- 

 sented. It is conceived that a measurably 

 full series of such exhibits will be of high 

 educational value, giving a comprehensive 

 notion of a large number of the greater 

 facts of anthropology. By no other scheme 

 of display of objective material can the 

 whole career of the race, especially of its 

 intellectual development— its greatest char- 

 acteristic — be so clearly set forth. The ob- 

 jects are not assembled chronologically, but 

 pertain to all times and to all peoples. The 



place of each specimen in the series is 

 determined by its estimated relation to the 

 successive levels of culture ; and the exhibits 

 when completed may be taken to illustrate 

 the full range of human accomplishment as 

 it stands to-day or as comprehending the 

 entire human period. These exhibits thus 

 present the whole scope of human achieve- 

 ment, so far as human handiwork can ex- 

 press it, and serve at the same time to 

 indicate with approximate accuracy the 

 main steps of progress made by the race in 

 its tedious ascent from lowest savagery to 

 highest civilization. 



W. H. Holmes. 



CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY. 

 THE LAKES OF FRANCE. 



Andre Delebecque, of Thonon, Haute 

 Savoie, France, has for some years past 

 devoted himself to the study of the lakes of 

 his country, on which he has already 

 written fifty odd papers. He now produces 

 a handsome monograph, ' Les Lacs Fran- 

 5ais ' (Paris, Chamerot et Eenouard, 1898), 

 the most elaborate work of its kind yet pub- 

 lished. All the lakes of France, over 400 

 in number, are described ; the larger ones 

 being studied as to location, depth, form, 

 deposits, temperature, color and composi- 

 tion of water, origin of basins, and changes 

 due to natural processes. The volume 

 contains 22 maps and 153 figures. Under 

 lake sediments it is well to note that, ex- 

 cept close to the shore lines, lake bottoms 

 are covered with an impalpable alluvium, 

 quite like the sandstones that are often de- 

 scribed under the head of lacustrine depos- 

 its in the Rocky Mountain region. The 

 sub-lacustrine ravines, by which infiowing 

 sti'eams of low temperature and bearing 

 glacial silts descend to the bottom of the 

 larger lakes down the slope of their deltas, 

 are interesting features ; they raise the 

 question whether some other condition than 

 ' continental elevation ' may be found to 



