912 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 103. 



accompanied by tlie trenching of the gorge, 

 about 150 m. beneath the floor of the 

 trough. The cliff of the Lorelei and the 

 narrows and rapids in the river beneath it 

 are caused by a heavy quartzite bed. 



THE WANDERING OF LAKE NOR. 



SvBN Hedin gives an interesting account 

 of the apparent recent wandering of Lop 

 (lake) Nor on the level floor of the Gobi 

 desert in Central Asia (Peterm. Mitt., 

 XLIL, 1896, 201-205, maps) , confirming the 

 views of Eichthofen as against those of 

 Prshevalski. The desert basin contains a 

 great accumulation of waste from the sur- 

 rounding mountains ; coarser and steeper 

 sloping around the margin, finer and dead 

 level in the central depression (790 m.); 

 here the aneroid observed from place to place 

 varies only with the weather and season. The 

 chief river is the Yarkand, coming from the 

 west, and at high water in the late summer 

 bringing much silt ; this tends to drive the 

 lake to the southeast. The winters are 

 prevailingly calm ; but in summer the wind 

 is generally from the northeast, often 

 stormy, drifting the surface sand and 

 bearing so much dust as to darken the sky 

 (hence called Kara-buran, or black storm); 

 this drives the lake to the southwest. The 

 resultant of river and wind action is a 

 southward migration of the lake, but from 

 a comparison of various records, Hedin 

 concludes that there is an intermittent 

 shifting back and forth, according as this 

 or that part of the plain is aggraded. Fur- 

 ther account of Hedin's perilous journey 

 across the region of dunes is given in the 

 London Geographical Journal of October. 



W. M. Davis. 

 Harvard University. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 



In some recent publications Dr. Franz 

 Boas has added to his valuable contribu- 



tions to our knowledge of the tribes of the 

 northwest coast. 



The eleventh report of the British Asso- 

 ciation Committee is altogether from his 

 researches. It gives notes on the shamans, 

 and a description of their beliefs and cus- 

 toms ; also a study of Tshimshian houses, 

 the growth of children and linguistic par- 

 ticulars. 



In the 'Internationales Archiv ' (Bd. IX.) 

 he reports a number of songs from the 

 Kwakiutl Indians, giving the music, the 

 original words and both a literal and a free 

 translation. 



From him also there appears an article 

 on ' The Indians of British Columbia ' in 

 the Bulletin of the American Geographical 

 Societj^ (No. 3, 1896). This describes their 

 general appearance, their relationship and 

 the details of their ordinary life. 



All this material is at first hand, drawn • 

 from his personal studies in this field of 

 ethnography. 



THE TEMPLE OF TEPOZTLAN. 



The ' Bulletin ' of the American Museum 

 of Natural History for November 13th con- 

 tains a short article by Mr. M. H. Saville 

 on a ruined temple near Cuernavaca, Mex- 

 ico. His description is accompanied by 

 several plates and introduces a remarkable 

 relic, hitherto unknown. He states that it 

 is ' the only aboriginal structure still stand- 

 ing in Mexico to which we can probably as- 

 sign a positive date.' This he thinks can 

 be done by the hieroglyphic inscriptions on 

 its stones, which read the year 10 Tochtli, 

 1502 of our era, in the reign of Ahuizotl. 

 He acknowledges that the ruins look much 

 older, but he does not mention the possi- 

 bility that Ahuizotl may have merely in- 

 serted his tablet in a wall constructed long 

 before. Both descriptions and plates are 

 interesting. 



ANCIENT AND MODERN TJMBRIAN SKULLS. 



In the ' Atti '' of the Eoman Society of 



