December 11, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



523 



cleus having been completely submerged by the 

 sea of that period. But it must have been dry 

 land previously, since no traces of the Chazy, cal- 

 cif erous, and Potsdam are found beneath the Tren- 

 ton, which rests directly and horizontally upon 

 the Laurentian gneiss, and is so related to the 

 present elevations and depressions of the gneissic 

 surface as to indicate that they are in large part 

 the result of erosion in pre-Cambrian times. 



The reports by Messrs. Ells and Low on the 

 Gaspe Peninsula, with the maps, indicate con- 

 siderable progress in the elucidation of this small 

 but very formidable wilderness ; and Mr. EUs's 

 notes on the geology of Prince Edward's Island 

 prove that the so-called triassic beds of this island 

 belong almost wholly to the Permo-carboniferous. 



Prof. L. W. Bailey continues his investigation 

 of the geology of New Brunswick in a report on 

 Carleton and York counties, which is devoted 

 cliiefly to the Silurian and supposed Cambro-Silu- 

 rian sti'ata. The latter consist mainly of highly 

 crystalline gneisses and schists ; and the only evi- 

 dence of then- Cambro-Silurian age consists in the 

 fact that they are overlain unconformably by the 

 Silurian beds, coming between the latter and the 

 great granite axis, by which it is supposed they 

 have been metamorphosed. 



IVIr. R. Chalmers describes at considerable length 

 the interesting glacial phenomena of the same 

 region. 



jMt. Hugh Fletcher's extended report on the 

 northern and hitherto unsurveyed portion of Cape 

 Breton, with the accompanying map of the whole 

 island, places the geology of this province on a 

 par with that of the rest of Acadia. The scale of 

 the map, wliich covers 24 sheets, is entirely too 

 liberal, being at least twice as large as either the 

 topographic or geologic details require ; and the 

 bulkiness of the map seriously diminishes its use- 

 fulness, especially in the absence of a general map 

 of the island on one sheet. 



The remainder of the volume is made up of de- 

 tailed reports on the apatite mines and deposits of 

 Ottawa county, and the gold mines of the Lake of 

 the Woods, and some scattering observations on 

 the mines and minerals of Ontario, Quebec, and 

 Nova Scotia. 



HEIGHT IN FRANCE.^ 



In the accompanying map of France the average 

 height of the inhabitants is indicated by the shad- 

 ing, in which the darker shades denote the smaller, 

 and the lighter shades the greater heights. It 

 will be seen that a line, as shown on the map, 



1 From the Revue scientifique, October, 1885. By M. 

 Jacques Bertillon. 



running diagonally from Manche in the north- 

 west to Savoie (Lyons) in the south-east, divides 

 the country into two parts. To the north-east of 

 this line the inhabitants are above the average 

 height ; to the south-west of it, below the aver- 

 age. This phenomenon was known to Broca, who 

 ascribed it to racial influences alone. He held 

 that the Celts and the Cymri mentioned by Caesar 

 were the racial ancestors of the present French 

 people. The Celts were of mean height, and were 

 further distinguished by their round heads and 

 bulging foreheads, and light hair and eyes ; while 

 the Cymri (or Beiges of Caesar) were tall, and had 

 long heads, with broad, high foreheads and light 

 hair and eyes. Broca had also pointed out that 

 unusual deviations from the average height were 

 more common in those regions which we may re- 

 gard as the country of the Celts, and rare among 



5M.6in-3i7.ZiA 



the Cymric people. Broca prepared his map ac- 

 cording to the frequency of the deviations from 

 the average height, and his result is quite similar 

 to what is obtained when, as in the present in- 

 stance, the average height itself is the basis of 

 comparison. In both cases Fi'ance is divided by 

 a line from north-west to south-east into two paiis, 

 the inhabitants of one of which are markedly 

 taller than those of the other, while about the same 

 regions appear as the extremes either of tallness or 

 smallness in both cases. 



It is well known that if the height of a lai'ge 

 number of men are taken, and the nimiber of men 

 at each height be recorded, the largest number of 

 records will centre about the mean height of the 

 whole group, and the number will grow smaller as 

 we leave the point of average height to either side. 

 It is further known that the frequency of the 

 records at each point of the scale is determined by 



