1884.] Scientific News. 1073 
and agriculture, and evincing the progress making in this country 
towards laying a scientific basis of agriculture. The subjects 
treated are the following: Minnesota, the center of the conti- 
nent; land and water, arable, prairie and forest areas; forest trees, 
river basins, altitude of rivers, towns, lakes, their kinds and dis- 
tribution ; drift, soils, rainfall, temperature and climate, and con- 
sequent conditions of successful farming in the State. To have 
subjects like these brought to the attention of the younger and 
more active farmers of any State, is to immeasurably advance 
their interests and to increase the attractions of a farmer's life, en- 
larging the scope of his powers of observation. 
— Ata banquet lately given by a number of anthropologists 
to M. G. de Mortillet, the hall was decorated, says Nature, with a 
life-size picture of a prehistoric Gaul, executed according to the 
last discoveries of M. de. Mortillet.. The man is represented as 
having no hair on his body; his arms are very long and muscles 
very powerful, but his toes are not opposable, although they could 
be used in climbing the trees of the primitive forest. His jaw is 
strongly prognathous, but not at all equal to that of an anthro- 
poid ape. His chest is strongly compressed laterally, and his 
abdomen prominent. The skin is not negroid, but of our present 
color, The expression of the face is in intelligence on a level with 
that of an Australian. In the Paris salon also is a large picture 
representing a prehistoric tribe preparing in their cave to feast 
Upon a cave bear which has been killed with their stone imple- 
ments, 
— The sixth volume of the Bulletin of the Philosophical Soci- 
ety of Washington, just issued, contains the minutes of the So- 
ciety for 1883, and of the mathematical section from its organi- 
zation on March 29 to the close of the year. Among the papers 
are the annual address of the president, J. W. Powell, on “ The 
three methods of evolution,” and abstracts of communications by 
- E. Dalton on the geology of the Hawaiian islands and “The 
volcanic problem stated ;” by J. W. Chickering on the thermal 
lts of North Carolina; the geology of Hatteras, by W. C. 
err ; ore deposits by displacement, by S. F. Emmons; glacia- 
tion in Alaska, by W. H. Dall; the drainage system and loess of 
eastern Towa, by W. J. McGee; the Cambrian system in the 
United States and Canada, by C. D. Wolcott. 
— The twelfth annual Report of the Zodlogical Society of 
Philadelphia, shows that our foremost garden of animals is not 
less prosperous than in former years. The list of additions 
during the ‘year is a full one, as is the list of animals bred in 
the garden during the year; among them a hybrid wallaby, a 
native animals. Among the more notable additions, were six sea 
hants, and a chamois. 
