380 Chronicles of Science. [July, 



together in a useful form in his book, all that he says having a 

 reference to the collections in the Blaekmore Museum, yet giving 

 sufficiently clear information upon each subject to interest the general 

 reader who may never be able to visit this most interesting place. 



The arrangement of the Blaekmore Museum consists mainly of 

 four great groups : — 1. The remains of animals found associated 

 with the works of man. 2. Implements of stone. 3. Implements 

 of bronze. 4. Implements, weapons, and ornaments of modern 

 savages, which serve to throw light upon the use of similar objects 

 belonging to pre-historic times. 



The mammalian remains are described by Dr. H. P. Blaekmore. 

 These consist chiefly of a local series from Fisherton, near Salisbury, 

 associated with stone implements of the palaeolithic type. "The 

 animals," says Dr. Blaekmore, " which lived in our country whilst 

 the drift-beds were being deposited, differed strangely from those 

 with which we are now familiar, and afford the most conclusive 

 evidence of the greatly altered condition of our climate. The musk- 

 sheep, reindeer, lemmings, pouched marmot, mammoth, and woolly 

 rhinoceros are all animals peculiarly adapted for living in an Arctic 

 clime. Our downs were tenanted by vast droves of rather small 

 but hardy horses, not unlike the half-wild forest ponies of the pre- 

 sent day, by large herds of deer, and shaggy-maned bisons. The 

 stillness of the night, we may imagine, was not unfrequently broken 

 by the terror-inspiring roar of a hungry lion, or perchance by the 

 howling of a pack of wolves, or the hideous discord of the savage 

 hyaenas quarrelling over some half-putrid carcase — making the air 

 re-echo with their peculiar yells." 



There is good reason to believe that the Blaekmore Museum, 

 although not so extensive in every department as some of the Con- 

 tinental museums, is nevertheless one of the best in Europe. 



But what adds perhaps the greatest value to the Collection, and 

 what, for purposes of comparison, places it above all others,' is 

 the suite of American antiquities obtained by Messrs. Squier and 

 Davis in their explorations of the tumuli and mounds of the valleys 

 of the Mississippi and Ohio. This was the finest collection of its 

 kind in the United States, and it is doubtful whether one of equal 

 extent, and so rich in the works of primitive man, can again be 

 made in America; indeed many of the specimens are unique. 

 Apart from the general merit of the Blaekmore Museum as illustrat- 

 ing pre-historic archaeology in a singularly successful manner, the 

 fact of its containing this remarkable American collection gives it 

 at once a distinctive character, and offers a special object to reward 

 the archaeologist who may visit this ancient city — already famous 

 for its magnificent megalithic remains at Stonehenge on Salisbury 

 Plain, once the home of the bustard, the last of our large indigenous 

 wild birds exterminated by man. 



