I^ 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 242 



shrouds the lower Umbs of the mother. It is of the same general 

 characteristics as that covering the body in Fig. i. 



Fig. 4 represents the body of a younger woman, although less 

 perfectly' preserved. She has small delicate features, very small 

 hands and feet, and the instep is highly arched. On part of the 

 head is found long, fine black-brown hair. It comes off readily, 

 half of it having already fallen out. From the appearance of the 

 mamma and nipples, I should say she had born children. The 

 pelvis is large and well formed. 



The cranial, throacic, abdominal, and pelvic viscera have not 

 been disturbed in any case. No violence has caused death ; and 

 why these five remains of ancient civilization should have been 

 placed side by side in a stone sarcophagus, five thousand feet up in 

 a cave, must remain a matter of speculation for the present. Per- 

 haps they all belonged to one family, — father, mother, and child, 

 with husband and daughter or son and wife. 



The heads are well shaped. The measurements of their skulls 

 would place them among the meso-cephalic, or intermediate be- 

 tween the dolicho- and brachy-cephalic. The face is oval, high 

 cheek-bones, long eyes sloping outwards, the fleshy lips and nose 

 rather flat and wide. In my judgment, these are bodies belonging 

 to a period not less than four or five hundred years ago. The 

 owner of these bodies, Mr. Joel Docking of San Francisco, is going 

 to place them in one of the large museums of the world. 



WiNSLOw Anderson, M.D. 



EXPLORATION AND TRAVEL. 

 New Guinea. 



Since the Germans have taken possession of the eastern part of 

 the north coast of New Guinea, and the island has been divided by 

 treaties among the Dutch, English, and Germans, explorations are 

 carried on very vigorously. It is only a few years since d'Albertis 

 discovered the upper part of the Fly River, and thus was the first 

 to enter the interior of the large island for a considerable distance. 

 Since that time English missionaries have been very active in the 

 exploration of the south coast. Of prime importance is the work 

 of Rev. J. Chalmers, who knows the natives probably better than 

 any other white man. His remarks on the distribution of a hght 

 and a dark colored population of New Guinea, the former of whom 

 he considers Malayans, the latter Papuans, are of great interest. 

 He states that the former, on their migration from the north-west, 

 located between the Papuan aborigines {Proc. Roy. Geogr. Soc, 

 1887). 



The Australian colonies take a particular interest in the explora- 

 tion of the island, as they are watching with jealousy the attempts 

 of the French and Germans to gain a foothold in the Pacific Ocean. 

 Since the close of 1885 they have equipped several expeditions, but 

 so far they have not been very successful. In 1885 the small 

 steamer ' Bonito ' was sent out to explore the high mountain-ranges 

 in which the Fly River has its source; but this attempt failed, as 

 the steamer was in the hands of an unskilled captain. The only 

 geographical result was the exploration of a small tributary of the 

 Fly River, though the cost of this expedition was about eighteen 

 thousand dollars. 



In 1 886 the well-known traveller H. O. Forbes set out to explore the 

 Owen Stanley Mountains in the south-eastern part of New Guinea ; 

 but unfortunately he arrived on the island in the rainy season, when 

 travelling is impossible, and later on he had to give up his intention 

 on account of lack of means. The project has, however, been taken 

 up again, and Mr. Vogan, the curator of the Auckland Museum, 

 and Mr. Cuthbertson, are about to start on a journey from the south 

 coast to Huon Bay. 



Besides these attempts, which have so far had no important re- 

 sults, a great number of successful explorations have been carried 

 out. The Deutsche Koloniaheitung reports that a private expedi- 

 tion was sent by a Sydney house to the Gulf of Papua. The steamer 

 ' Victory ' reached Aird River at the northern extremity of the Gulf 

 on March 21, 1887, and ascended the river for eighty miles. Its 

 delta is very extensive, and was partly explored by the steamer. 

 The river was called Douglas River. The ' Victory ' returned and 

 discovered another large river near Bald Head. It received the 

 name of Jubilee River, and was found navigable for one hundred and 



ten miles. Even at this point it was three hundred yards wide and 

 from two to five fathoms deep. Unfortunately no map of this sur- 

 vey has been published so far, and therefore these discoveries 

 could not be inserted in our sketch-map. 



New discoveries in the region of Baxter River were made by J. 

 Strachan, who explored part of the river-branches forming the delta 

 of Fly and Baxter Rivers. The same traveller has been exploring 

 the southern coast of Dutch New Guinea, and reports the discovery 

 of a narrow channel leading from McClure Gulf to Geelvink Bay ; 

 but Mr. Wichmann remarks justly in Petermann's Mitteihcngen, 

 that the correctness of this discovery must be doubted, as A. B. 

 Meyer, who travelled over the isthmus, states expressly that there 

 is no connection between the bays. 



The best surveys made in New Guinea during the last years are 

 those of the officers of the New Guinea Company and of German 

 men-of-war visiting these coasts. In these parts of our map will be 

 found the most important and most extensive alterations, as com- 

 pared to former maps. The coast from Humboldt Bay to the 

 southern boundary has been resurveyed for the greater part, and 

 the results have been published by the New Guinea Company (in 

 Nachrichtcn iiber Kaiser Wilhelms-Land). From these publica- 

 tions we have taken the course of Augusta River and the coast- 

 line. South of Cape della Torre another river was discovered 

 which was called Ottilia River, but "it could not be followed to any 

 distance on account of its shallowness : it carries a great vol- 

 ume of water, and may be ascended by a steamer of three or four 

 feet gauge. The course of these rivers shows that the high part of 

 New Guinea is formed by a narrow range of mountains which be- 

 gins at Geelvink Bay and continues throughout the island to its 

 south-eastern point. The banks of the rivers are inhabited by 

 natives, large villages being found on their upper parts. It will be 

 of great interest to learn where the large river emptying itself at 

 Point D'Urville has its source. So far, the rivers have been the only 

 means of penetrating into the interior, for the vegetation is so dense 

 that it prevents extensive journeys. The map shows that the out- 

 lines of many islands are still unknown, and we must add that the 

 positions of the small islands and reefs are uncertain. 



A great difficulty in all enterprises on New Guinea is occasioned by 

 the hostility of the natives. In some parts the English missionaries 

 have succeeded in gaining their confidence, particularly by the help 

 of Polynesian teachers, but generally the natives are distrustful and 

 aggressive. The same is true in New Ireland and New Britain ; 

 but it is hoped that in course of time better relations will be estab- 

 lished. Recently natives of New Guinea and New Britain have be- 

 gun to work on the plantations of the companies. The climate of 

 the island is in most parts unhealthy, particularly in the swampy 

 alluvial districts, which are very fertile. It may be, however, that 

 it will become more healthful when the woods are cleared and the 

 swamps drained, as was the case in northern Queensland. 



ETHNOLOGY. 



Mound-Exploration. 



The second bulletin of the Bureau of Ethnology is a statement 

 by Mr. Cyrus Thomas, who is in charge of the archaeological di- 

 vision of the bureau, on the methods adopted for carrying on 

 mound-exploration, and on the present state of the work of the 

 division. His method of investigation is to mark out the several 

 archasological districts by searching for typical forms of remains in 

 the different parts of the country. For the present the field of re- 

 searches is limited to the district east of the Rocky Mountains. 

 Three north and south lines were worked : the first and principal 

 one, the immediate valley of the Mississippi from Wisconsin south- 

 ward ; the second, from Ohio southward through Kentucky to Mis- 

 sissippi ; and the third, in the valley of eastern Tennessee and 

 western North Carolina, thence southward through Georgia and 

 Alabama to Florida. Sections which had been somewhat carefully 

 worked over were generally passed by. The specimens found by 

 the exploring parties are handed over to the National Museum. 



Among the results so far obtained, the most important ones are 

 mentioned in the bulletin. The links discovered directly connecting- 

 the Indians and mound-builders are so numerous and well established 

 that there should be no longer any hesitancy in accepting the theory 



