852 General Notes. 
Scotia and around the Bay of Fundy. He had discovered many 
new pictographs, tracings of which he had taken and presented to 
the audience. The lecture-room was decorated with these and other 
specimens in a manner highly interesting. Colonel Mallery told 
of the investigations and discoveries made by himself and Dr. 
J. Hoffman, and of their comparisons of the real objects with the 
descriptions made by Schoolcraft in his voluminous publications 
issued in 1853, and showed that he (S.) had fairly represented the 
substance, but sometimes with exaggeration. The principal part of 
Colonel Mallery’s paper was devoted to a description of the signs 
and symbols which were on the charts, and to a translation of their 
messages, 
Remarks were made by several persons commendatory of Colonel 
Mallery’s labors. Prof. Mason said: “ We have before us to-day a 
record of the beginning of a written language. We are standing 
in the presence of the birth of literature.” And he asked a vote of 
thanks to Colonel Mallery. 
Prof. J. E. Todd, of Tabor, Iowa, presented the next paper, 
entitled “Some Ancient Diggings in Nebraska,” which he illus- 
trated by a sketch upon the blackboard. These were at Newawka 
on the Weeping Water creek. ‘They were supposed to be pits dug 
for the extraction of flint. ‘hey bore some resemblance to the 
quarry at Flint Ridge, Ohio. f 1 
Dr. D. G. Brinton presented “ Early Man in Spain.” He deait 
first with the chipped flints discovered by Ribera at Otta, ree” 
were believed to come from the miocene. He said the implements ‘i 
the neolithic period in Spain have a striking similarity in size an 
form with those common to the United States. : 
The Basques are the most ancient known inhabitants of Spam 
and Portugal. They are believed to have lived there at the _ 
of the formation of the shell-heaps, which seem older here than 1 
Denmark. The Basque language has many peculiarities of o 
ical American Indian tongue, such as the Algonkin. F 
Brinton exhibited a map on which the six hundred fathom nig 
the Atlantic ocean was indicated. An upheaval of the land to er 
altitude would join the continent of Europe with that of No r 
America by way of England, Scotland, the Faroë Islands, Io 
Labrador, and the New England coast. Many things seem oe 
confirm this theory, which is an opinion held by many geologis 
The existence of this land-bridge across the Atlantic ocean once 
established, many ethnologie problems relating to the American 
Indian would be at once solved. $ 
Mr. Wilson complimented Dr. Brinton upon his paper and con 
tinued in the same line. Speaking of the endurance of language 
_ he said the Basque language was still spoken in France and Spam, 
and there were many persons now living there in the retired ru 
