508 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 274. 



(2) ' Physiography of the Arkansas Valley 

 Region,' by Mr. Geo. I. Adams. 



This is essentially a gradation plain, below 

 which lie the present stream valleys, and above 

 which rise numerous residual hills, ridges, 

 mesas and mountains, to elevations usually not 

 greater than 200 feet. The mountains which 

 occupy the broader synclines, however, may 

 rise from 1500 to 2S00 feet above sea-level. 

 The rocks have been thrown into open folds, 

 with east and west trend. There is little fault- 

 ing. The northern limit of the region is the 

 Boston Mountains, having a monoclinal struc- 

 ture and forming the southern edge of the 

 Ozark Plateau. To the south it is limited by 

 the closely folded and faulted structure of the 

 Ouachita Mountains. 



The Arkansas Valley Region may be consid- 

 ered as an extension of the Prairie Plains east- 

 ward through the mountains of Indian Territory 

 and Arkansas to the Gulf Plains. It shows evi- 

 dence of an earlier erosion period in which the 

 streams flowed at relatively higher levels. It 

 may be compared with the Appalachian Valley 

 region in its structural and physiographical 

 relations. F. L. Ransome, 



David White, 



Secretaries. 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



The 320th meeting, held on Saturday, March 

 10th, was devoted to an address by Dean C. 

 Worcester on ' The Birds and Mammals of the 

 Philippines' which was illustrated by lantern 

 slides. The speaker dwelt particularly upon 

 the distribution of the birds, showing the part 

 played by deep straits as barriers to migration 

 between the islands, and stating that the 

 Bornean aspect of the fauna was confined to 

 Palawan and the adjacent small islands. The 

 difficulties of collecting in the Philippines were 

 described, but it was pointed out that these 

 islands offer exceptional opportunities for the 

 zoologist and that a careful study of the fauna 

 might be expected to throw much light on the 

 problems of specific and individual variation. 

 F. A. Lucas. 



NEW YOEK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

 SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSY'CHOLOGY. 



The regular meeting of the Section was held 



on Friday, February 23d. The first paper of 

 the evening, entited ' Symbolism of the Huichol 

 Indians, ' was presented by Carl Lumholtz. The 

 Huichols are a small tribe of about 4000 souls 

 living in the southwestern part of Mexico, on a 

 spur of the Sierra Madre. Their country being 

 difficult of access, they have been left compara- 

 tively untouched by civilization, and thus pre- 

 served their ancient beliefs and customs intact to 

 the present day. The paraphernalia of the war- 

 rior of ancient times, i. e., of the gods of the pres- 

 ent race, furnish the principal symbolic objects 

 by which prayers are expressed, and the most im- 

 portant of these articles is the ceremonial arrow 

 left as a sacrificial offering in the temples and 

 considered a carrier of praj'ers. It is painted 

 and otherwise decorated withsymbolic emblems, 

 and attached to it are representations of other 

 paraphernalia of the warrior, as the front-shield 

 and the back-shield, the latter being also viewed 

 as the mat or bed of the god. Frequently the 

 object of the prayer is incorporated in an at- 

 tachment to the arrow. The vivid imagination 

 of the people makes them see analogies in the 

 most heterogeneous phenomena. They see ser- 

 pents in the sky, the clouds moving through 

 space, the wind sweeping over the fields, the 

 rain falling down, even in their girdles and 

 ribbons. Certain insects which appear during 

 the wet season are identical with corn, and 

 corn is identical with hikuli, and hikuli identical 

 with deer. The same tendency to consider 

 heterogeneous objects as identical may be ob- 

 served in the fact that a great variety of objects 

 are considered as plumes. Clouds, cotton- wool, 

 the while tail of the deer, the deer's antlers, 

 and even the deer itself are plumes, and the 

 serpents are believed to have plumes. Natur- 

 ally, much ambiguity is found, and there are 

 few symbols that express always the same 

 meaning ; nor is an idea always expressed by 

 the same symbol. Although this gives a certain 

 individuality to the symbolic objects, we can 

 always trace the connection between the thought 

 to be expressed and the symbol expressing it. 

 The second paper on ' Symbolism of the Arapa- 

 hoe Indians ' was read by A. L. Kroeber. It was 

 shown with the aid of lantern slides that the 

 decorative art of the Arapahoe Indians is 

 throughout realistic (?. e. , pictorial) or symbolic. 



