ANTHROPOLOGY. 375 
its attached wool, was made use of for articles of clothing. 
Third, the lake dwellers probably received flax from Southern 
Europe, from which section fresh seeds must have been derived 
from time to time. The variety cultivated was the small, native, 
natrow-leaved kind from the coast of the Mediterranean, and not 
at all that now raised in Europe. -It must, therefore, have been 
cultivated also in Southern Europe, although Dr. Heer could not 
ascertain among what people and at what age this took place. If 
this could be ascertained it would be an important point in the 
determination of the antiquity of the lake dwellers. Fourth, at 
the time of the empire both summer flax and winter flax were cul- 
tivated in Italy, as now, but in what form it was grown in ancient 
Egypt is not determined. It is thought probable that the narrow- 
leaved variety was first introduced and after that the Roman, and 
then the common varieties followed. The common plant has doubt- 
less arisen from the cultivation of the narrow-leaved, while the 
Roman winter flax and the Linum ambiguum constitute the inter- 
mediate stages. The original home of the cultivated flax was 
therefore along the shores of the Mediterranean. The Egyptians 
had probably cultivated it, and from them its use was doubtless 
disseminated. It is possible that the wild variety and the winter 
flax were grown elsewhere at the same time, when the cultivated 
variety had long.since driven them out of use in Egypt.— Nature. 
“INDIAN NETSINKERS” IN New Jersey. — Both the netsinkers 
and hammerstones, as described by Mr. Rau, in the March number 
of the Naruratist, are exceedingly abundant in many localities in 
New Jersey. Especially along the banks of the Delaware River, 
and about the creeks that empty into that river, we have found the 
“ sinkers,” literally, by hundreds. They are now so abundant in 
the bed and about the shores of Watson’s Creek, Mercer Co., that 
we do not pretend to gather them, when collecting unless one of 
unusual shape or size attracts our attention. The collection from 
this state, made by the writer, and now in the museum of the Pea- 
y Academy, Salem, Mass., contai y speci idei i 
all respects with those figured on page 140 of the present volume 
of this journal ; unless it be, that the majority are somewhat small- 
er and less heavy than the average of the “Muncy” specimens. 
The remarks of Mr. Rau, on the hammerstones found associated 
With the « sinkers,” at Muncy, will only in part apply to this same 
