February 24, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



107 



he either lay quiet or rose and stalked back to his own corner as 

 if offended. Some might take it that his conduct indicated a 

 fondness for company, or the possession of grateful feelings, or 

 even an affectionate disposition ; but it is not necessary in explana- 

 tion of Snap's deportment to go beyond his desire for food. In 

 the satisfaction of his hunger his interest in human beings de- 

 parted. His doings are here put forward in support of nothing 

 except that with proper treatment the snapping tortoise, one of 

 the lowest and least likely of the tortoises, may lose his timidity, 

 his ferocity disappearing in consequence, and become susceptible 

 of a considerable amount of training. S. Gasman. 



Mu8. Comp. Zool., Cambridge, Mass. 



SnoTv Rollers. 



The article of Dr. Claypole, in Science No. 532, on ' ' Snow 

 Rollers," recalls what 1 saw a few years ago. The condition was 

 like that described by Mr. Hart. There was a smooth crust of 

 snow on which a light fall of damp snow fell. The wind changed 

 suddenly to the north, blew hard, and I saw scores and perhaps 

 hundreds of these snow rollers forming. The wind simply blew 

 them along and they formed just as boys roll snowballs. I feel 

 sure such occurrences are not uncommon here. These rollers 

 were several inches in diameter. D. S. Kellogg. 



Plattsburgh, N. T., Feb. 9. 



a " Mammoth on elephant de la Lena," referring to the well-known 

 discovery in 1799 of the body of a mammoth, imbedded in ihe 

 frozen banks of the river Lena, in Siberia. I suppose that scarcely 

 any relic of antiquity is better known to pre-historicarchseolofjists 

 than the remarkable delineation of a mammoth upon a plate of 

 fossil ivory, discovered by Edward Lastet. in May, 1864, in the 

 cavern of the Madelaine (Dordogue), in southern France. It was 

 made in the immediate presence of M. de Verneuil and of Dr. 

 Falconer, and an account of the circumstances of the discovery 

 was given by him in a letter to Milne Edwards, published in the 

 Annates des Sciences Naturelles, 5e. ser., T. iv. (Zool.), 1865, 

 pp. 353-356. That even international jealousy should "question 

 its origin " surpasses belief . Henry W. Haynes. 



Boston, Feb. 16. 



The Antiquity of Man. 



In " Current Notes on Anthropology. — xxil." (Science, Feb. 10, 

 1893), Dr. Brinton has referred to certain discussions that took 

 place at the meeting of the German Anthropological Association 

 last August. Not having yet seen the report of that meeting, I 

 cannot judge how far Dr. Brinton may have been misled by his 

 authorities, but I wish to enter a decided protest as to two state- 

 ments made by him. Let me premise by saying that it seems to 

 me that it behooves Americans to maintain a strict neutrality in 

 the international jealousies between the Germans and the French. 



In regard to the importance to be attached to the celebrated 

 "Neanderthal skull," it seems to be sufficient that it has been 

 adopted by De Quatrefages and Hamy to set all the Germans, ex- 

 cept Schaffhausen, against it. I did not expect, however, to find 

 an American using such language as this about it: " The Nean- 

 derthal skull . . . was not dug up at all, but was picked up in a 

 gully, which had been washed in the mountain side, and came 

 from dear knows where. Probably there had been an old grave- 

 yard further up the hill, but by no means one in quaternary 

 times." I will quote the exact language of Dr Fuhlrott, the dis- 

 coverer, describing the circumstances under which it came to 

 light. "In a wild ravine, called the Neanderthal, cleft in the 

 Devonian limestone, is a small cavern, about eleven feet long, 

 ten broad, and eight high, opening upon an almost vertical wall 

 of rock about sixty feet above the level of the stream [flowing 

 through it]. . . . The ravine has been quarried for marble. In 

 the cavern is a bed of clay, a glacial deposit, almost as hard as 

 stone. In this clay, at a depth of two feet, in August, 1856, a 

 human skeleton was discovered," etc. (Hamy, " Prei is de Paleon- 

 tologie Humaine," p. 237). The real question in regard to these 

 human remains is, in the words of Schaffhausen, '■ Whether the 

 cavern in which they were found, unaccompanied with any trace 

 of human art, were the place of their interment, or whether, like 

 the bones of extinct animals elsewhere, they had been washed 

 into it" {Natural History Review, 1861, p. 172). In all serious 

 discussions it is well to stick close to the facts of the case. 



The other subject, about which I dissent from Dr. Brinton's 

 •conclusions, is in regard to what he calls " the delineation of a 

 mammoth on a bone from the Lena cave in the south of France. 

 This was not discussed, being probably considered of questionable 

 origin." I must own that at first I was somewhat puzzled to 

 know just what Dr. Brinton meant by "the Lena cave in the 

 south of France." But on looking into the recently published 

 English translation of the Marquis de Nadaillac's "Prehistoric 

 Peoples," p. 119, Fig. 38, sure enough, I found an engraving repre- 

 senting a "Mammoth or elephant from the Lena cave." Now 

 this remarkable designation is not due to the author, who calls it 



Birds in Severe Cold Weather. 



DuRiNQ the recent severe cold weather, as one of the high-school 

 students was on his way through the belfry of the building to 

 hoist the weather signals, he discovered a small bronze owl perched 

 above one of the windows. It had evidently been drawn thither 

 by the heat from the chimneys and pigeons which frequent the 

 ventilators. On being captured by the janitor, on the day follow- 

 ing, the bird made no resistance. It was put into a cage, to be 

 kept for the zoology class. It lived but one brief day, and it was 

 found to be emaciated and evidently died of weakness and sheer 

 exhaustion. The taxidermist who stufl'ed it said that it was only 

 one of a large number recently brought to him as victims of the 

 cold spell. Many were found frozen in barns, and had been 

 driven by the cold from the woods to the city. 



Large numbers of snow-birds, crows, as well as English spar- 

 rows, were hovering about grain elevators, the glass works, and 

 other similar buildings for warmth and food all through the cold 

 period. The gathering of birds about warm chimneys, etc., in 

 such large numbers was something unusual. 



E. R. Whitney. 



Blogbamton, N.T. 



Miocene Group of Alabama. 



Since sending you a contribution on the Miocene Group of 

 Alabama, Dr. Wm. Dall of the Smithsonian, to whom the fossils 

 collected had been submitted, has returned his report, naming 

 the most of them and declaring his opinion, that they are rather 

 of the older than a younger Miocene. This will better suit the 

 geographical position and other facts detailed of the Grand 

 Gulf. His final determination will be published in the Alabama 

 Report. Lawrence C. Johnson. 



Meridian, Miss., Feb. 13. 



Mule-footed Hogs. 



Mr. J. F. RiTTER of Higginsville, Mo., sends me a hog's foot, 

 which to me is something new. It has the two larger hoofs 

 united into one. The bones above are separate but the hoofs 

 wholly united. He states that a farmer of the vicinity has a 

 drove of these mule-footed hogs. By crossing breeds he has 

 some with two cloven feet and two mule feet. I should like to 

 know whether this is a common occurrence, or is it something 

 new? Jno. H. Frick. 



Warrenton, Mo., Feb. 11. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



A Manual of Bacteriology. By George M. Sternberg, M. D. 

 New York, William Wood & Co. 886 p. 8". $7. 



The results of the bacteriological investigation of the past 

 decade, when massed in a huge volume like the one before us, 

 are calculated to arouse the keenest admiration for the talent and 

 industry that have produced them. Even in this period of 

 breakneck temps in all lines of human activity and thought the 

 progress of bacteriology seems to the world at laige trulj mar- 

 vellous. Every year, we may almost say every month, witnesses 

 some discovery of untold practical value. If a last word had 



