THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
change taking place, for the Mediterranean is sup- 
plied with water from the Atlantic as well as the 
Black Sea. Through the Straits of Gibraltar there 
flows two currents as there do through the Sea of 
Marmora. The existence of an outward current 
has been long known. It is accountable for the 
higher temperature found in the deep waters of 
the Eastern Atlantic. Water, unmistakably of 
Mediterranean origin, has been found some 200 
miles north-west of the Straits at a depth of 1560 
fathoms. Its presence at such a depth is readily 
understood when it is remembered that the water 
of the Mediterranean contains an average of 3-9 
to 4 per cent, of solid matter in a state of solution 
while the percentage in Atlantic water in the 
vicinity of the Mediterranean entrance is 3'4 to 
3.5 
It has been calculated that the inflow through 
the straits is equivalent to a river eight miles 
wide, 100 fathoms deep, running with an uniform 
velocity of 18| miles in the twenty-four hours. 
Such are the dimensions of a current requisite to 
maintain equilibrium between the contribution of 
rivers, precipitation supply, and the inflow from 
the Black Sea on the one hand, and the copious 
evaporation and the outflow into the Black Sea 
and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Knowledge 
Prehistoric Items. 
Nothing is more interesting than to speculate 
upon the social condition of those rude progenitors 
of the human race whose history, until our own 
epoch, has lain shrouded in the night of Time. 
For the most part, all is mysterious and enig- 
matic concerning them ; yet, owing to the resear- 
ches of the archeologist, the geologist, and last, 
but not least the student of botany, we are enabled 
in some degree to penetrate the gloom. We can 
tell with what implements they went a -hunting, 
with what material they made their clothes, and 
what food they ate. The botanist can even inform 
u s how the prehistoric host adorned his little feast; 
the cates he offered his guests for grace rather than 
for need ; the dessert he set before a wedding 
party, and the provender he placed before the no 
less joyous convivialists bidden to rejoice over the 
advent of a first-born ! These archaic boards were 
not so scantily furnished as we might suppose. 
263 
Foremost figured the time-honoured pear and 
apple; the homely fruits, so dear to schoolboy.-, of 
all ages and all countries, we now know delighted 
the palates- .of children born ere recorded history 
began. The prehistoric area of the apple was 
chiefly in the region lying between Trebizond and 
Ghilan. The lake-dwellers of Lombardy, Savoy, 
and Switzerland made great use of apples. ‘They 
always cut them lengthways, and preserved them 
dried as a provision for the winter,’ writes Deean- 
dolle in his interesting work on the Origin of Cul- 
tivated Plants. Two varieties of apples seem to 
have been known to the lake-dwellers before they 
possessed metals. Whether they ever solved the 
problem that hopelessly puzzled George Ilf, and 
got them into a dumpling, archaeology does not as 
yet inform us. The abundance of the fruit found 
in prehistoric stores would seem to indicate some 
kind of cultivation. 
The pear is of less frequent occurrence, although 
it is found in the prehistoric dwellings of Switzer- 
land and Italy, usually in a dried state and cut 
lengthways. Their, as now, therefore, the pear was 
a greater luxury than the apple. The abundance 
and variety of names testify to the very ancient 
existence of the latter from the Caspian Sea to the 
Atlantic. Philology comes largely to our aid in 
this interesting study. The more ancient and 
widely spread a plant, the more numerous its names. 
But prehistoric diners-out possessed one of. the 
best of all fruits, the grape. Seeds of the grape 
have been discovered in the lake-dwellings near 
Parma, dating from the age of Bronze; also in the 
prehistoric settlements of Lake Varese and of 
Switzerland. M. Decandolle, moreover, informs 
us that vine-leaves have been found in the tufa 
near Montpellier, where they were probably depo- 
sited before tire historical epoch, also irr the same 
formation in Provence. Whether they combine 
the two we know not, but it is quite probable 
that wine and walnuts delectatecl the palates 
of primitive feasters. 
The walnut is of great antiquity. Walnut leaves 
have been found in the quaternary tufa of Pro- 
vence. and a species of walnut in some of the 
Swiss lake dwelling. The species possesses a 
Sanskrit name, a fact testifying to its early culti- 
vation in India. The tree was introduced into 
| China about 140 B.C, 
