NOTES AND QUERIES. 



155 



Wallasey Pool, and " in close connection with, the ancient fossil oxen above 

 referred to." 



Me. Haswell on the Denudation of Arthur's Seat. — My atten- 

 tion lias been drawn to an article which appeared last Saturday in a weekly 

 contemporary. That article was entitled " Geological Plagiarism," and 

 commented on the appropriation of passages and ideas from Mr. G-eikie's 

 contribution to the geology of Edinburgh in the ' Memoirs of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey ' for 1861 in the article printed in the number of this maga- 

 zine for the past month " On the Denudation of Arthur's Seat." ~No one 

 will, I am sure, believe me capable of knowingly permitting such plagiarism 

 to appear in these pages ; and even the writer of the criticism referred 

 to in no way attempts to put such an imputation upon me. As far as I am 

 personally concerned, I was in total ignorance of the existence of Mr. 

 Geikie's paper. The publications of the Geological Survey appear in a 

 very erratic manner, and as I am in no way personally interested in Scot- 

 tish geology, and do not, as I think as editor of this magazine I ought to 

 do, receive gratuitous copies of the works issued by our national survey 

 for review, I naturally only purchase such portions as I have individual 

 need of. Such is the brief explanation of the cause of Mr. Geikie's paper 

 not being known to me. 



Having been visiting the scene of the late disaster at Sheffield, it was 

 only since my return that I knew of the article in the contemporary re- 

 ferred to. I at once forwarded a copy of the article to Mr. Haswell, who 

 is not personally known to me, with the request that he would take the 

 matter up. Time sufficient for his reply not having elapsed, it will be 

 obvious that further remarks of mine at present would be unjust to a con- 

 tributor, and could be neither sufficient for my own wishes, nor for that 

 due apology which, if the case be truly stated, is undoubtedly due to Mr. 



26th March, 1864. 



"Works of Art in Caverns in Central Prance. — Dr. Falconer has 

 communicated the following letter to the ' Times :' — 



" Sir, — Since the exploration of the Brixham Cave in 1858 an immense 

 impulse has been given all over Europe to the search for and study of the 

 material proofs of the antiquity of the human race. The public mind is 

 now craving for information on a subject which a few years back was con- 

 demned by the general verdict of men of science, and hardly mentioned 

 except in a whisper. Presh evidence is being brought to light, day after 

 day, of the most interesting and important character, although not tending 

 to carry man back, in every particular instance, to a period of very high 

 geological antiquity. The south of Europe is the quarter whence the cur- 

 rent is now flowing, and the ossiferous caves the springs whence it issues. 

 Professor Busk, in a recent communication (' Beader,' 30th of January) 

 has given a very clear and excellent account of discoveries made within 

 the last year in a bone-cave in Gibraltar. The materials, not all yet arrived 

 in England, are now under investigation, and give promise of results of 

 high import. But the most interesting additions have been yielded, very 

 lately, by caves in Central France, where what may be called works of art, 

 of primitive execution, have turned up in considerable abundance, which 

 prove that savage man, of the unground and unpolished stone period, was 

 able, in advance of the use of metals, to sculpture on deer's horns, and to 

 grave on stone, figures of quadrupeds his contemporaries that are now ex- 

 tinct in that region. My friend M. Lartet, on behalf of himself and Mr. 



Geikie. 



