242 General Notes. [ April, 
or cliff, he informs me, is of quartzite (Potsdam sandstone), which has 
the curve of an anticlinal axis, the base of which may be called a cave. 
This is arched, high enough for a man to stand at the entrance, with the 
roof declining backwards and on each side to the ground; the width and 
depth about twelve feet. The “find” of specimens consists of one hun- 
dred and thirty arrowheads, of quartz, jasper, limestone, and chalcedony ; 
one banner-stone or sceptre, a perforated implement resembling a toma- 
hawk ; eight chisels, mostly of quartz; two pipe-stems, three net-sinkers, 
and about one hundred fragments of pottery. As the characteristic 
specimens of this find, with full details of their discovery, will shortly be 
illustrated and described, we will not refer more particularly to them. 
The specimens here briefly referred to were found beneath a deposit of 
rich black mold, varying from two and one half to three feet in depth. 
If this deposit is solely due to the decomposition of vegetable matter, the 
contained relics indicate that very far back in the past the red man had 
arrived at an advanced stage of neolithic culture ; for the specimens as a 
class are of excellent workmanship. — Cuaries C. Apsort, M. D. 
Tue Tasmanians. — In a recent memoir on the osteology and pecul- 
iarities of the ‘Tasmanians, who have recently become extinct, Dr. J. 
B. Davis records his belief that they represent a type distinct from the 
Australians. Besides presenting osteological differences, the Tasmanians 
never used the boomerang or shield, although they had a larger brain, 
and were intellectually superior to the Australians. Like the Australians, 
however, the Tasmanians never made pottery. Although Tasmania is 
situated but a little more than three hundred miles from Australia, Davis 
thinks there was never any communication between the two peoples. In 
confirmation of this view he states that the Tasmanians neither had 
native dogs nor practiced circumcision, a custom very general among the 
Australians. “All that can be said with truth is that the Tasmanians 
are not Australians, they are not Papuans, and they are not Polynesians. 
Although they may present resemblances to some of these, they differ 
from them all substantially and essentially. From all this we are justi- 
fied in asserting that the Tasmanians were one of the most isolated races 
of mankind which ever existed; that they were a peculiar and distinct 
race of people, dwelling in their own island, and different from all others. 
And they have been one of the earliest races to perish totally by coming 
into contact with European people.” The population of Tasmania at 
the time when first visited by Europeans was between four thousand 
and seven thousand. The last native died three years since. 
GEOLOGY AND PALHONTOLOGY. 
Hort Springs ann GEYSERS. — We extract from Prof. T. B. Com- 
ae: Report on the Geology of Wyoming the following remarks 0? 
the difference between hot springs and geysers: “In the ordinary hot 
