438 General Notes. [ July, 
In the Western Review of Science and Industry for February are the 
two following articles: The Missouri Mound Builders, by Judge Bee, 
West; and The Functions of the Uvula and the Prominence formed by 
the Azygos Uvule Muscles, by Thos. F. Rumbold, M. D. The last 
named is reproduced from the St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal. 
Mr. A. R. Grote contributes to the Popular Science Monthly a paper 
on The Early Man of North America. 
In Nature, February 8th, Mr. A. W. Howitt, of Bairnsdale, Gippsland 
Victoria, adds something to his former notes on the boomerang. We are 
informed by Mr. Holmes, of Hayden’s Survey, that the Moquis use their 
boomerangs for killing rabbits. A party of young men are detailed each 
morning to go hunting. Each one carries a bunch of these weapons 
slung over his shoulder. They shy them with great force and precision, 
but, of course, have no idea of their returning. Here, then, is the primi- 
tive boomerang, one step lower than the Australian, excelling the ordi- 
nary club by its more rapid flight, and by its following more strictly a 
plane of revolution. 
In Academy, for February 24th, and March 3d, 10th, and 17th, will be 
found letters from Messrs. Sweet, Ellis, and Phillimore upon Spelling 
Reform. This subject becomes a very important one to the ethnologist 
at this time, when great interest is manifest in the collection of Indian 
vocabularies. It is a conceded fact, we believe, that, until the Amer- 
ican Philological Association produces its phonetic alphabet, we must 
endeavor to record our vocabularies in such form that they can be re- 
produced at any printing-office. 
Frequent references are made in European journals to the fact that 
many chipped arrowheads have a spiral form, as if to give a rotary mo- 
tion to the arrow in its flight. In a conversation with Mr. Frank 
` Cushing, the assistant of Dr. Rau, at the National Museum, who is also 
an expert at making flaked and chipped implements from bottle glass, 
etc., I asked him why he so often gave his points a spiral twist. He 
replied, “ Because I cannot help it. When I hold the butt end of the 
arrowhead against the ball of my thumb, I have a good bearing, and — 
can take off long flakes; but when I reverse the object to chip the other 
side, I have a poor bearing, and can take off only small chips. The same 
is true of the opposite ease, only the long chips will come from alter- 
nate sides, giving the point the appearance of a twist.” Mr. Cushing has 
made thousands of chippéd implements, and agreed with me that the 
twist or spiral was a necessity over which the savage had no ee 
control. Subsequently this undesigned improvement may have | 
the alternate chisel-edge of some of Dr. Rau’s specimens at the Cen- 
tennial Exhibition. 
The anthropological map accompanying Reclus’ Nouvelle op 
Universelle was- prepared by M. G. de Mortillet. The pa 
~ localities of France marked amount to 396. The neolithic elise 
-~ Comprise 26 natural caves, 144 artificial caverns, and 2314 dolmens. 
