SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
205 
made a few remarks, observed that tke objects skown were very similar to 
those found in the tumuli of the wolds, and they were not of the very 
earliest periods of the first productions of man. The manufacture was ex- 
ceeding'ly difficult. No savages of the present day manufactured implements 
of stone that could he compared to the very oldest known examples. 
The Esquimaux as ancient Europeans. — Mr. Boyd Dawkins’ theory of the 
existence of the Esquimaux in Europe during prehistoric times has recently 
received some support from Professor Nilsson. It has been called in ques- 
tion, however, by Mr. Carter Blake, who, in a letter to the editor of the 
Geological Magazine ior~Fe\>Y\\2n;j, makes the following observations : ^^Mr. 
Dawkins’ arguments in favour of the ^ affinity ’ of the old Aquitanian cave- 
dwellers ^ with the Esquimaux ’ do not appear to be of the strongest value. 
‘ The habit of sculpturing animals on their implements ’ is common in all 
savage races ; ‘ the carelessness about the remains of their dead relatives ’ is 
also predicable of many ; ^ the fact that the food consisted chiefly of rein- 
deer ’ only proves that reindeer was an accessible and plentiful food, and by 
no means denotes community of origin. Mr. Dawkins’ argument is : — All 
who eat reindeer meat are ^closely allied ;’ Esquimaux eat reindeer meat 
and Aquitanian cave-dwellers ate reindeer meat • . • Esquimaux and Aqui- 
tanian cave-dwellers are ^ closely allied.’ At the present moment, English, 
Americans, Negroes, and Bed Indians are feeding here on beef (when they 
can get it) : yet there is no community of race. Mr. Dawkins’ last state- 
ment regarding the small stature being ^ proved in the people of the Dor- 
dogne Caverns by the small-handed dagger figured by Messrs. Lartet and 
Christy in the Mevue Archeologique^ I must doubt. All who are acquainted 
with the small-griped swords of the existing Hindoos, and of many of the 
so-called Phoenician sepultures, will know that they are held in the hand in 
a very different way to that of our own swords, and that the smallness of 
the grip by no means connotes the size of the individual.” 
Man in the days of Eozoon. — This startling proposition would appear to 
receive the sympathy if not the support of an Hibernian Geologist, Mr. 
G. Henry Kinahan, who, in a letter recently published, makes this allusion to 
the point : The Biblical record may be sneered at because human remains 
have not been found except among the most recent of the tertiary deposits. 
However, in answer to this I may be allowed to put forward Col. Green- 
wood’s suggestion j that there is only negative evidence against the existence of 
man and the other land animals from the earliest periods of the earth : for, to 
quote that author’s words : — ‘ Where are the fossil remains of land quad- 
rupeds found ? In cavern deposits, in drift and alluvium deposited on dry 
land,” in filled-up lakes, in bogs, or frozen up in polar regions. Now all these 
land museums are not only modern, but they are superficial and temporary. 
They are liable to be washed into the sea j and their fossil contents must he 
destroyed before they can be redeposited in marine strata.’ ” (Vide Geological 
Magazine^ January.) 
Explanation of the poverty of a Geological Fauna. — Mr. Thomas Belt, in a 
paper in the Geological Magazine (January) on the Fauna of the Lingula 
Flags, endeavours to account for the barren state of the Maentwrog epoch. 
He thinks that the poverty of the fauna cannot be due to its proximity to 
the beginning of life in our globe, for older rocks contain a varied faima. 
P 2 
