222 



SCIEJVCJEJ. 



[Vol. IX., No. 213 



sharp as it was on the day it was made." The 

 best section of this ' floor ' was at Stoke Newing- 

 ton Common, where there was found, about four 

 feet below the surface, an immense accumulation 

 of paleolithic implements, of both the pointed and 

 oval types, numerous scrapers and hammer- 

 stones, with cores and flakes innumerable. 



Mr. J. A. Brown has been prosecuting similar 

 researches in the north-western part of London, 

 and has discovered in the high-level gravels at 

 Acton ' a paleolithic workshop site,' in which 

 some five hundred or more of such objects have 

 been found at a depth of six feet below the surface. 

 "The whole of the specimens," he says, "are as 

 sharp as when they were flaked off from the 

 cores, and it is clear that they have never been 

 removed from the spot, where they were left by 

 the paleolithic people, who made them, when 

 they retreated before the advancing waters" 

 (p. 57). The present volume, embodying tlie sub- 

 stance of several papers read before various sci- 

 entific bodies, contains an interesting narrative of 

 his own investigations, and those of other ex- 

 plorers, and is profusely illustrated by engravings 

 of specimens of all the different objects which 

 have been found by Mr. Worthington Smith as 

 well as by himself. But Mr. Brown has also 

 availed himself of the opportunity of compiling 

 from many sources an extended study of the con- 

 dition of certain savage races, for the purpose of 

 illustrating the probable mode of life, conditions, 

 and cidture of the river-drift men. With one of 

 his conductions, however, I feel constrained to 

 diff'er. From what seems to be very insufficient 

 evidence he has drawn the inference that the 

 paleolithic man ' had invented or used the bow 

 and arrow,' His reasons for this opinion, so much 

 at variance with that held by most prehistoric 

 archeologists, are that he has found a few small 

 triangular flakes which he styles "the earliest 

 form of arrow-head," and thinks they "could 

 hardly have been used in any other way " (p. 72) ; 

 and also other flakes having on one side " worked 

 hollows, which are generally regarded as shaft- 

 smoothers" (p. 116). 



Now Mr. O. A. Shrubsole, in an article on ' Cer- 

 tain unfamiliar forms of paleolithic implements ' 

 {Journal of the anthropological institute, xiv. 196), 

 has argued that man in a primitive state, having 

 only natural forms of growth to avail himself of, 

 such as wood, bone, or horn, would of necessity 

 fashion tools for scraping-purposes, with curved 

 outlines ; and to me it seems unreasonable to re- 

 strict similar implements to the sole purpose of 

 'shaft-smoothers' for arrows. Mr. Worthington 

 Smith has reached the conclusion that the makers 

 of the implements, which he has discovered in 



such abundance, " depended for food upon roots 

 and wild plants, and the bodies of small animals 

 slain by stones thrown from the hand ; " and he 

 does not believe that the objects found by him 

 were intended for weapons, but for tools. Mr, 

 Brown's rejected hypothesis, that the small tri- 

 angular flakes, which he has figured, if indeed 

 they are implements at all, were used as 'points 

 of small harpoons for killing fish' (p. 117), seems 

 much more probable, than that the paleolithic 

 man, as I have attempted to show elsewhere (Pro- 

 ceedings of the Boston society of natural history, 

 xxiii. 269), should have invented such an inge- 

 nious and complicated instrument as the bow and 

 arrow. Henry W. Haynes. 



RIDGWAY'S NOMENCLATURE OF COLORS 

 AND COMPENDIUM. 



Every naturalist has doubtless at times seriously 

 felt the need of some means of identifying the 

 various shades of color he is called upon to desig- 

 nate in describing animals or plants, or interpret 

 in the descriptions given by other authors. No 

 standard work, duly illustrated, having this end 

 in view, has for many years been available. This 

 want Mr. Ridgway has now attempted to supply. 

 His ' nomenclature of colors ' comprizes fifty- 

 eight pages of text and ten colored plates. A 

 brief discussion of principles of color is followed 

 by a chapter on the selection of pigments and 

 their combination to produce required effects, and 

 a comparative or polyglot vocabulary of colors, 

 in which is given the equivalent terras in seven 

 languages of more than three hundred designated 

 shades of color. About one hundred and seventy 

 of these shades are defined and illustrated by the 

 plates, and their composition indicated by ex- 

 planatory text. This forms part i. of the little 

 manual under notice. Part ii. consists of an ' orni- 

 thologists' compendium,' devoted mainly to an 

 extended glossary of technical terms used in de- 

 scriptive ornithology, illustrated by six outline 

 plates, relating to the topography of a bird, the 

 forms of feathers, the patterns of color-markings, 

 and the contour of eggs. 



Mr. Ridgway has thus not only attempted to 

 fix and illustrate a standard nomenclature for the 

 " numerous hues, tints, and shades which are 

 currently adopted, and now form part of the lan- 

 guage of descriptive natural history," but has 

 brought together a most convenient mass of tech- 

 nical information of great importance to ornithol- 

 ogists, whether specialists or amateurs. 



A nomenclature of colors for naturalists, and compen- 

 dium of useful knowledge for ornithologists. By Robert 

 Ridgway. Boston, Little, Brown & Co. 8°. 



