REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
Anthropological Notes. — The rate of erosion of the gorge of 
Niagara has been variously estimated, and the length of time that 
has elapsed since the river began its cutting has been shortened or 
lengthened to correspond. Owing to the problems connected with 
the relations of early man in America to the glacial epoch, the dis- 
cussion of the value of Niagara as a chronometer, in No. 4, Vol. XXXI, 
of the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, will be of interest 
to anthropologists. Professor Tarr summarizes the results of the 
many investigations in the following words: **Gilbert says that the 
problem of the age of Niagara cannot * be solved by a few figures on 
a slate nor yet by the writing of many essays. To this every one 
who has given attention to the problem must assent. The longer 
the study, the more complex the problem appears, and we are bound 
to conclude that Niagara is not a good chronometer. Until more 
evidence has been obtained concerning the length of the overflow at 
Nipissing Pass, which some believe to have been long, others short, 
we are bound to remain in doubt whether the age is from 5000 to 
10,000 years or from 30,000 to 50,000 years." 
In the American Anthropologist for October, 1899, appears a sec- 
ond paper by Mr. W. H. Holmes upon * Preliminary Revision of the 
Evidence relating to Auriferous Gravel Man in California." Mr. 
Holmes devotes his attention chiefly to the Calaveras skull, the most 
important of the human remains reported from the auriferous gravels. 
He regards this supposed Tertiary relic as quite modern, probably 
the skull of a Digger Indian. Notwithstanding his masterly summing 
up of the evidence for the negative, the case cannot be considered 
Closed until the facts presented by Becker, Wright, and King have 
been explained. Mr. Holmes is unjust in his intimation that the 
possessors of the skull have been neglectful of their obligation in not 
taking further steps to prove its authenticity during the thirty-three 
years that it has been in Cambridge. Professor Whitney adequately 
described the skull in his volume on Zhe Auriferous Gravels of the 
Sierra Nevada of Cali ifornia. It was always accessible to any one 
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