THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
217 
plant, and in undulating land where water 
cannot lodge. 
Prehistoric Man:— A few months ago 
some fossil remains were discovered in a 
tertiary formation at Archese in Italy, 
which on being examined were said to be 
portions of a human skeleton. Conside- 
rable excitement prevailed in scientific 
circles, owing to the undoubted origin and 
the great antiquity of the formation out of 
which the remains were taken. The bones 
have since been forwarded to Prof. Capellini, 
the learned Bologna paleontologist for exa- 
mination. He pronounces them to be the 
bones of a creature allied to the dolphins, 
similiar remains of which have also been 
found in the rocks around Bologna. 
Ants and Agriculture:— What the 
earthworm does for the alluvial tracts 
around the Nile, the ant performs for the 
soil in Mashonaland. Referring to this 
subject, in his account of his travels in 
Southern Africa with the Hon. Cecil Rhodes 
Mr. De Waal thus describes the value of 
the work of the ant in the rural economy 
of the districts through which he passed. 
Wherever an ant-hill is found in the veldt, 
there is also luxuriant verdure, and in 
Mashonaland the ant-hills can be literally 
counted by the million. 
The whole of the so 1 is, as it were, turned 
over and thrown up to the surface by these 
little toilers, who in Africa perform the 
function which Darwin tells us is performed 
by the earthworms in other countries. 
Wherever you have an anthill, you have 
fertile soil and sweet grass. It grows so 
luxuriantly that it is a common saying 
that you can pasture an ox on an ant-hill 
Mr. T. D. Russel of 78 Newgate St. 
London, has favoured us with a set of 
catalogues of naturalists requisites. 
Proposed Mediterranean Survey: — 
The numerous accidents that have hap- j 
pened of late to ships both of the Royal 
Navy and of the Merchant service by run- 
ning on unknown rocks and shoals in the 
Mediterranean render it desirable that a 
more complete survey of that sea should 
be undertaken. In reply to a question on 
the subject in the House of Lords, Lord 
Elphinstone stated that many parts of the 
Mediterranean have never been surveyed on 
account of the difficulty experienced in 
obtaining the consent of the respective 
governments. A more complete survey is, 
however, about to be made of the Greek 
Archipelago. 
Monkey language: — Of the many re- 
| markable uses to which the phonograph 
has been put none, perhaps, bids fair to be 
attended with more interesting results than 
that which has for its object the investi- 
gation of the various sounds made by 
j animals when communicating with one 
I nothaer. 
Writing on this subject a correspondent 
to the Spectator says. ‘‘Some attention has 
been aroused by the recent attempt to re- 
produce monkey-talk by means of the 
phonograph. It is perhaps not generally 
! known that in a little book, published nearly 
a hundred years ago, at the sign (strangely 
enough) of the Tour de Babel, on the Quai 
Voltaire, Paris, a French writer made an 
endeavour to reduce the chatter of the tiny 
marmoset to articulate translatable lan- 
guage. The whistle, or ouistiti, from which 
this little creature has its French name, he 
describes truly as a long, sharp, piercing 
sound, repeated two or three times, signi- 
fying the want of something or some one. 
I would add to this, that it is evidently the 
call used by one to the other. A very young 
one that 1 had always cried ‘Ouistititi, 
ouistitititi,’ to the older one for help, if it 
thought itself in danger. ‘Chriii,’ a long- 
drawn high tone, he translates into ‘come.’ 
All those that I have possessed have thus 
called me to come to them. ‘Guenakiki, 
expresses, he saj^s, terrible fear; ‘Trouakki, 
violent, despairing grief; ‘Trouagno,’ intense 
pain, ‘save me.’ Gne that had broken its leg 
thus warned me of it. ‘Krrrreoeoeo,’ ofien 
repeated, means very happy indeed; ‘Keh,’ 
a little better; ‘Korrie,’ annoyed, disturbed; 
‘Ococo,’ deep terror; ‘Anic,’ feebly and melo- 
