NOTES AND QUERIES. 
165 
Wallasey Pool, and " in close connection with the ancient fossil oxen above 
referred to." 
Mr. Haswell on the Denudation of Arthur's Seat.— My atten- 
tion has beeu 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. Geikie'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 knowiugly 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 ])aper. The ])ublications 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 tnat 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. 
Geikie. S. J. Mackie. 
lUh March, 1861. 
Works of Art in Caverns in Central France. — Dr. Falconer has 
communicated the following letter to the ' Times :' — 
" Sir,— Since the exjjloration 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 pul)lic 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. Fresh 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 instai;ce, to a period of very high 
geological anticjuity. 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 (' Header,' 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 contemporarie^s that are now ex- 
tinct in that region. My friend M. Lartet, on behalt of himself and Mr. 
