280 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
which it is a most wonderful and aclmirable thing to see them n^ake out of the stone ; and the 
ingenuity which invented this art is much to be praised. They are made and got out of the 
stone (if one can explain it) in this manner. One of these Indian workmen sits down upon 
the ground, and takes a piece of this black stone, which is hke jet, and hard as flint, and is a 
stone which might be called precious, more beautiful and brilhant than alabaster or jasper, 
so much so that of it are made tablets and mirrors. The piece they take is about eight inches 
long or rather more, and as thick as one's leg or rather less, and cylindrical ; they have a 
stick as large as the shaft of a lance, and three cubits or rather more in length ; and at the 
end of it they fasten fiiTuly another piece of wood, eight inches long, to give more weight to 
this part ; then, pressing their naked feet together, they hold the stone as with a pair of 
pincers or the vice of a carpenter's bench. They take the stick, which is cut off smooth at 
the end, with both hands, and set it well home against the edge of the front of the stone 
(y ponenlo avesar con el canto de la frente de la piedraj which also is cut smooth in that part ; 
and then they press it against their breast, and with the force of the pressure there flies off 
a knife, with its point, and edge on each side, as neatly as if one were to make them of a tur- 
nip with a sharp knife, or of iron in the fire. Then they sharpen it on a stone, using a hone 
to give it a very fine edge ; and in a very short time these workmen will make more than 
twenty knives in the aforesaid manner. They come out of the same shape as oxix barbers* 
lancets, except that they have a rib up the middle, and have a sUght graceful curve towards 
the point. They will cut and shave the hair the first time they are used, at the first cut nearly 
as well as a steel razor, but they lose their edge at the second cut ; and so, to finish shaving 
one's beard or hair, one after another has to be used ; though indeed they are cheap, and 
spoiling them is of no consequence. Many Spaniards, both regular and secular clergj^, have 
been shaved with them, especially at the beginning of the colonization of these realms, when 
there was no such abundance as now of the necessary instruments, and people who gain 
their livelihood by practising this occupation. But I conclude by saying that it is an adinira- 
ble thing to see them made, and no small argument for the capacity of the men who found 
out such an invention.' " 
Kow we take our leave of "Analiuac;" we have read it from beginning to 
end and have been delighted with it. Our readers will be the same if they 
buy it and read it right through as we have done. 
We have to thank ]\Ir. Tylor for the use of some of the excellent woodcuts 
with which his book is copiously illustrated. 
Frimeval Man. By the Rev. Dr. ANDERSO^% F.G.S. Edmburgn : 
Paton and Ritchie, 1861. 
This small Pamphlet, a report and address to the Graduates' Association at 
St. Andrew's, has been sent to us by its author, the Rev. Dr. Anderson of Dura 
Den, who takes views on the subject of flint-implements and their bearings ou 
the question of the great antiquity of man like those expressed by M. Robert in 
his late con'espondence with M. Boucher de Perthes, namely, that there ha-d been 
much commingling by diluvial or torrential action of the bones and debris em- 
bedded in the more ancient pleistocene beds, with more recent remains and 
more modern sediments and deposits. 
Geological changes are daily falling within our own observations, and scarcely 
a year elapses without something occurring worthy to be noticed. The Murray- 
shire floods of 1829; then in the spring of 1859, at the breaking up of the 
ice in the river Spey and its tributaries, and the vast accumulation of sand and 
gravel near the junction of the Eden with the Cerees Burn, are quoted 
by Dr. Anderson who deduces from these and similar modem instances 
that the mere position of the beds of gravel and silt in which the flint weapons 
are found does not necessarialy determine their time, or even relative ages one 
with another. Many of them may not be in their original places, but have been 
shifted and carried to other localities, either suddenly by river-flooding, or slowly 
and gradually by the eroding action of rains and runlets of streams. 
Although these opinions are not in strict accordance with our own, we are 
always ready to concede a portion of our pages in stating the opposing views of 
others, whenever those views have any merit. 
We are sorry, however, that Dr. Anderson should have mi«?interpreted and 
mis-stated some of our thoughts expressed in a former volume of " The Geolo- 
gist," but as we feel quite sure this was not intentional on his part, we refrain 
from further comment on that subject. 
