August 5, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



155 



forms. I make no pretentions to expert- 

 ness in paleontological knowledge, but the 

 fossil fauna at Port Antonio impressed me 

 as being of an Eocene facies. On the 

 Isthmus of Panama, where the hoi-izon is 

 due in the column of strata, there is noth- 

 ing at all representing this immense coral- 

 line limestone of Jamaica. But in Citrus 

 county, Florida, I studied, several years 

 ago, a white coralline Eocene limestone, 

 which seems to me to have a fauna of a 

 facies similar to that at Port Antonio. 

 Certainly there is a remarkably close re- 

 semblance between the two formations. If 

 they are parts of the same formation, or 

 limestones formed under like conditions 

 and of the same age, the Blue Mountains 

 of Jamaica consist of a deeply eroded mas- 

 sive 'uplift' of the Vicksburg- .Jackson 

 limestone, as the Eocene coralline limestone 

 of the southeastern portion of the United 

 States has been named. 



The railroad between Kingston and Port 

 Antonio is built over the white limestone 

 nearly all the way. But for some short dis- 

 tance on the north of the divide and south of 

 Morant Bay the many cuts expose a heavy 

 series of soft or semi-lithified clays, which 

 are probably newer than the limestone. 



The only other formation of any impor- 

 tance which was observed on the island is 

 a gravel deposit of Quaternary age which 

 forms an even but gentlj' sloping plain be- 

 tween Kingston and Spanish Town and is 

 represented at intervals on the north coast, 

 where it forms uneven terraces of no great 

 height, indicating apparently a slight uplift 

 of the island in some not very late part of the 



Quaternary Era. ^ tt tt 



•' Oscar H. Heeshey. 



Feeeport, III., June 2-1, 1898. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 



In the Proceedings of the Canadian In- 

 stitute, May, 1S9S, the Eev. E. B. Glass 



has a few pages on the Cree language. He 

 discusses its euphonj^, precision, and the 

 formation of its nouns. 



The Eev. John Campbell prints another 

 of his ' discoveries ' in the Transactions of 

 the Canadian Institute (May, 1898). The 

 title is ' The Denes of America identified 

 with the Tungus of Asia.' Mr. Campbell 

 has announced so many such discoveries 

 that it is difficult to secure consideration for 

 more of them. 



The death of Professor Dr. Friederich 

 Miiller, of Vienna, which occurred May 25th, 

 should not be allowed to pass without a 

 tribute to his studies of American languages. 

 In the second volume of his great work 

 ' Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft ' (Vi- 

 enna, 1882), he presented the analysis of 

 forty-one native tongues and dialects spoken 

 by the aborigenes of this continent, in ac- 

 cordance with the most rigid demands of 

 science. He avoided the treacherous 

 ground of verbal comparisons, and devoted 

 his attention to morphology and grammat- 

 ical structure. Both in extent and scholarly 

 thoroughness, his work in this branch 

 stands easily ahead of that of any other 

 writer in this generation. 



THE STUDY OF DECREASED NATALITY. 



Few subjects in anthropology have more 

 practical bearing than that of the decadence 

 of races. This comes most directly from a 

 diminished birth rate. It has been calcu- 

 lated that a minimum of four living chil- 

 dren are required to each marriage under 

 ordinary conditions in order merely to pre- 

 vent diminution. Decrease in natality, 

 therefore, is an ominous outlook for a com- 

 munity. 



A study of it in the United States by Dr. 

 K. R. Storer appeared some months ago 

 (reprint from Atlantic Monthly, October, 

 1897). It is disappointing in both facts (?) 

 and conclusions. With his full opportuni- 

 ties of observation he is quite unable to 



