388 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 90. 



precipice at Wintergreen Flats (where a 

 small branch of the river seems once to have 

 made a cascade like the present American 

 Fall) and recognized in the gorge the alterna- 

 tion between the broad and deep stretches of 

 quiet water, corresponding to the high- wa- 

 ter epochs during the erosion of the gorge, 

 and the narrow and shallow stretches with 

 swift and tumultuous current, correspond- 

 ing to the low- water epochs. On Tuesday 

 the route led over the supposed buried chan- 

 nel to St. David's ; and the party proceeded 

 thence along the edge of the escarpment to 

 Queenstown, returning, at the close of the 

 day, from Lewiston to Niagara Falls by the 

 railway in the gorge. 



William IN'oeth Rice, 

 Wesleyan Univeesity. Secretary. 



SECTION H.—ANTEBOPOLOGY. 



The Section of Anthropology at the Buf- 

 falo meeting, American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, August 23d-28th, 

 met on Monday morning for the transaction 

 of the usual business, in addition to which 

 it was this year necessary to elect a Secre- 

 tary, because of the death of Capt. J. G-. 

 Bourke, who was chosen at the Springfield 

 meeting. The place was filled by the elec- 

 tion of G. H. Perkins, of the University of 

 Vermont. In the afternoon the address of 

 Miss A. C. Fletcher, Vice-President of the 

 Section, was read, a most interesting, sug- 

 gestive and valuable contribution to our 

 knowledge of the religious ideas of the Da- 

 kotan peoples. Its subject was ' The Em- 

 blematic Use of the Tree in the Dakotan 

 Group.' This address will be published in 

 full in Science. 



On Tuesday morning Section H, as was 

 the case with all the Sections, settled down 

 to the regular reading of papers. The pro- 

 gramme of this and the following days was 

 made far more orderly and helpful than it 

 has been heretofore by reason of certain pre- 

 liminary arrangements. A provisional pro- 



gramme had been arranged before the open- 

 ing of the session, which was possible be- 

 cause, through the energy of the Vice-Pres- 

 ident, notice of the meeting and request for 

 early sending of abstracts of papers which 

 members intended to present had been sent 

 to all those especially connected with the 

 Section. The response to this request had 

 been so hearty that the provisional pro- 

 gramme required very little change as it 

 was used from day to day. Another and 

 convenient change was the arrangement of 

 all papers, the titles of which had been re- 

 ceived, under various headings, as Archaeol- 

 ogy, Ethnology, Somatology, and assigning 

 one or more sessions to each heading. In 

 this way, although absolute order could not 

 be brought about because of the late arrival 

 of authors and for other reasons, a reason- 

 able degree of vjiitj in the papers presented 

 at each session was secured, very greatly to 

 the advantage of both hearers and readers. 



A large number of papers were offered to 

 the Section, most of which were read, oc- 

 cupying all the time up to the last day 

 of meeting. The quality of the papers was 

 fully equal to that at previous meetings, 

 and at adjournment the members of Section 

 H agreed that a very profitable and enjoy- 

 able session had been held. The courtesy 

 and good humor which prevailed during all 

 the numerous discussions was noticeable. 

 Many of the papers presented opinions with 

 which all could not agree, but differences 

 of opinion were always expressed in a most 

 kindly manner. It is to be remembered 

 that space allows no account of these dis- 

 cussions and that the papers are reported 

 simply as presented by the authors and 

 give only their views of the question treated. 



It is also to the credit of the Section of 

 Anthropology that it is the only Section 

 which has recognized the justice of giving 

 equal honor for equal work to woman as to 

 man, and that a woman who has done good 

 work in the department which the Section 



