REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 587 
can occupy themselves much more profitably with the examination of 
physical characters than in the elaboration of theories of origin and 
of migrations. The scanty somatological data furnished in this 
paper show that the Funafutti natives are a brachycephalic (index 
82.5) race of medium stature (M 1.67). Mr. Hedley’s descriptions 
of their technic arts are clearly and concisely written, and form a 
valuable contribution to our knowledge of the culture of Oceania. 
FRANK RUSSELL. 
The Mounds of Louisiana.!— In a paper of twenty pages Professor 
Beyer has described his explorations among the mounds of north- 
eastern Louisiana. Several skeletons were found, but in such a 
fragile condition that they could not be preserved. An attempt is 
made. to establish the cranial type from four measurements taken 
upon five more or less fragmentary skulls, and to prove its southern 
affinities by comparison with a single Carib skull! With equal suc- 
cess we have recently compared the three principal diameters of the 
brain case of a series of thirty-three Eskimos with the fifty blacks 
from Torres Straits, described by Flower! The pre-Columbian type 
is presumably depicted in the two unnumbered plates entitled 
“Larto skull” and “Larto skull restored.” If this skull were 
properly oriented, say, about forty-five degrees forward, the “ type’ 
would be transformed into an ordinary Indian cranium. 
A few specimens of pottery were found, one of which is orna- 
mented with an artistic design containing the Maltese cross and the 
swastika ; that it is “ entirely too fine in execution to be ascribed to 
our North American Indians” is an error manifest to any one at all 
familiar with American ceramics. Frank RUSSELL. 
ZOOLOGY. 
been attacked again by Dr. H. V. Neal,? who has based his work 
upon the early stages of the common dogfish of the New England 
1 Beyer, Prof. George E. Publications of the Louisiana Historical Society. New 
Orleans, La., 18 
2 The Seginentation of the Nervous System in Squalus Acanthias. Buletin 
Mus. Comp. Zoöl., vol. xxxi, No. 7, 1898. 
