28 
REVIEWS. 
as soon as we attempt to grapple with it. The primitive implements 
met with in ancient workings in Anglesea “ correspond exactly with 
“ those found on the shores of Lake Superiorand “ the modern 
“ flint-lance or arrow-head of the Led Indian can scarcely he distin- 
“ guished from that found in the most ancient British graveswhile 
in Yol. ii. p. 109, the pottery of the North American Indians has be¬ 
come as “ unvarying as the nest-building instinct of birds,” which, 
however, as we have already seen, changes as soon as circumstances 
alter. 
But, according to Dr. Wilson (Yol. i. p. 450), the remarkable 
correspondence between the domestic and sepulchral pottery of the 
Old and New World “is only the inevitable correspondence of the 
inartistic simplicity inseparable from all infantile art.” If, then, 
£c infantile art” shows such an “inevitable correspondence,” how 
does he know that in the case of animals “ Their most ingenious 
“ works cost them no intellectual eflort to acquire the craft, and ex- 
“ perience adds no improvements in all the continuous labours of the 
“ wonderful mechanicians ?” or how does he reconcile this with the 
very next paragraph, in which he says, “ The ant and the beaver, the 
“ coral zoophyte and the bee, display singular ingenuity and powers 
“ of combination; and each feathered songster builds its nest with 
“ wondrous forethought.” Granting that the coral zoophyte displays 
singular ingenuity, which we are sure will be a new fact to natural¬ 
ists, and admitting that birds show wondrous forethought, we should 
like to know how they manage to do so without any intellectual 
effort. 
But we are thoroughly puzzled and bewildered, we can form no 
idea of what Dr. Wilson’s opinions on these subjects really are, and 
our only conclusion is that, in the words of Lord Dundreary, it is one 
of those things which no fellow can understand. 
But we should be doing the author great injustice if we were to 
insinuate that this is a fair specimen of the work. On the contrary, 
in spite of some deficiency of method, and a certain fulness of habit, 
the book is very readable, and may be recommended as an introduc¬ 
tion to more special works on Archaeology. The figures also are 
numerous and good. 
In the chapter on “ Narcotic Arts and Superstitions,” he dis¬ 
cusses at some length the question, whether smoking was known in 
Europe before the time of Columbus, as has been inferred by some 
antiquaries from the “ Elfin pipes,” which have been said to be found 
under circumstances implying great antiquity, and even on one occa¬ 
sion with a stone hatchet, and some arrow-heads. On the whole, he 
confesses, “ that a full consideration of all the bearings of this disclo- 
“ sure of the sources of modern popular belief has greatly modified 
“ the faith I once attached to such forms of tradition as memorials of 
“ the past.” 
His account of the remarkable earthworks and tumuli which are 
so numerous in the United States, though containing little new, is 
