requires thought. Papers by writers of this class are inevitably amorphous and weak. If those by the second class do exhibit power, the power is apt to be lawless, and the tectonics are likely to be distractingly apparent to the reader. Only papers by the third class can possess structure and grace. Schopenhauer declares further that an author's style is an exact expression of his mode of thought; that it shows the formal nature-which must always remain the same of all the thoughts of a man; and, therefore, that when he has read a few pages of an author, whatever the subject, he knows about how far that author can help him. Similarly wrote Dean Alford in his Plea for the Queen's English': "If the way in which men express their thoughts is slipshod and mean, it will be very difficult for their thoughts themselves to escape being the same."

Again, effective composition implies concentration, distillation, a process akin to chemical rectification; and this it is that energizes. Josh Billings said: "I don't care how much a man talks if he only says it in a few words." Lecky calls this power the supreme literary gift of condensation, which Gibbon possessed in so high degree. In the case of a talented writer this process is subconscious and rapid, but others achieve the result through conscious effort if not downright labor. Macaulay made almost endless changes, both of matter and of style. Said Joubert: "If there is a man tormented by the accursed ambition to put a whole book into a page, a whole page into a phrase, and that phrase into a word, it is I." Little wonder that Joubert has succeeded La Rochefoucauld as the most famous coiner of aphorisms. John Burroughs has lately said, in his 'Literary Values': "There is a sort of mechanical equivalent between the force expended in compacting a sentence and the force or stimulus it imparts to the reader's mind. * * So much writing there is that is like half-live coals buried in ashes-dead verbiage." Spencer, in his essay on 'The Philosophy of Style,' observes that the strongest effects are produced by interjections, which condense en

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tire sentences into syllables, and that signs are still more forcible. For instance, to say 'Leave the room' is less expressive than to point to the door. Doubtless science would make slow progress if obliged to use the sign language; yet in the prolixity and tenuity which characterize much of the scientific writing of the day there is no progress, but only vexation of the spirit of the reader. "It is with words as with sunbeams," says Saxe, "the more they are condensed the deeper they burn." In sententiousness there is strength. We feel it in the epigrammatic sentences of Emerson, who wrote to Carlyle of 'paragraphs incompressible,' and most of whose titles are single words. On the other hand, some of Kant's sentences have been measured by a carpenter and been found to run two feet eight by six inches. "A sentence with that enormous span," says De Quincey, "is fit only for the use of a megatherium.”

As an example of scientific writing which is not only clear and methodical, but forcible, I may mention that of the late George H. Williams, in whose untimely death the scientific world suffered a loss.

That clearness and force are desiderata in scientific writing will be admitted by all. It may be somewhat rash, however, even to mention in such connection a higher quality; but I observe that into this article the words 'grace' and 'beauty' have already crept and I am not disposed to cancel them. Says Joubert: "In the mind of certain writers nothing is grouped or draped or modeled; their pages offer only a flat surface on which words roll." Says Lewes: "A man must have the art of expression or he will remain obscure." Says Buffon: "Only well-written works will survive; abundance of knowledge and singularity of facts are not a guaranty of immortality."

Rhetoric, we know, was to Huxley an abomination-a vile cosmetic; yet it is not difficult to discover in Huxley's writings pages that are rhetorically elegant. The fact that with him the action was spontaneous is merely evidence of his artistic endowment; and there can be no doubt that his shafts were hurled at the foolishness of literary foppery, not at

that natural grace of style which, like elegance of manners, can be felt but not analyzed. Doubtless the technical description of a dinosaur or of an aboriginal shell-heap can derive little aid from metonymy or climax; but the field of the scientific specialist merges insensibly in common ground, and when he is on the borders he is within view of the whole world of letters. Moreover, the man of science often takes literary excursions into neighboring provinces-at least many of the great men of science do. Witness Huxley himself, with his 'Lay Sermons'; and John Tyndall, who almost made a specialty of feeding' Fragments' to the unscientific, and whose fame is due chiefly to his brilliant advocacy, oral and in writing, of physical science; and Ernst Haeckel, with his 'Riddle of the Universe.'

"The importance of style," says Lewes, "is generally unsuspected by philosophers and men of science, who are quite aware of its advantage in all departments of belles lettres. * * Had there been a clear understanding of style as the living body of thought, and not its 'dress' * * the error I am

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Of the authors whose writings I have classified as 'good,' there are five or six whose writings I should place in the highest class, that of excellent; for to the characteristics of clearness, orderliness and forcibleness they add the final quality of elegance or attractiveness. As an example of scientific writing of this class, mention may be made of that of the late Dr. John S. Newberry. If one doubts it one should read his paper on 'The Ancient Lakes of Western North America,' in the Fourth Hayden Annual.

Scientific men, especially the young men, are prone to spend most of their time in observing and experimenting; comparatively little is devoted to studying the accumulated data and their relations, and little indeed is reserved for composition. Phenomena are sought with eagerness, but, once discovered, interest in them wanes. The field and the laboratory are too alluring to be resisted for long, and the time to be devoted to reflection and to writing is minimized. Neglecting what Coleridge termed 'ratiocinative meditation,' they produce with facility papers consisting of crude raw materials which can but repel persons endowed with a sense of order, strength and beauty. Doubtless these writers are, as Henry James says, 'strangers to the pangs and the weariness that accompany the sense of exactitude, of proportion and of beauty,' but in many cases it is also true that they are writers who have been hindered in their course and never knew the reason why.' I appeal to the scientific men of America, especially the younger men, to cast off this shameful indifference to the power and beauty of their marvelously rich and adaptable language, and to devote to their writing some of the energy they manifest in the field and some of the patience they exercise in the laboratory.

In a recently issued university catalogue, under the heading 'Admission' and the subheading English,' appears the following item of gratifying information: "The candidate should read all the prescribed books, but knowledge of them will be regarded as less important than ability to write English." That a young man entering on a scientific course at a university should have read carefullySilas Marner' and 'The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers' is doubtless desirable, but that he should be able to express, in English that is at least clear and vigorous, whatever he may know on any subject is of far more importance. Without the property of reversibility, giving the motor, the dynamo-electric machine would lack the greater portion of its usefulness. Though a man be surcharged with knowledge, his usefulness to mankind must be slight unless he is able to

UNDER this title Professor Sir William Turner, than whom no one is better qualified to deal with this subject, presents the first systematic account of the cranial characters of the people of Scotland. The study is based on 176 carefully gathered skulls (117 males and 59 females) obtained principally in the counties south of the Clyde and Tay (lowland Scotland').

The memoir is written in the same clear style, eminently fit for instruction, which marks all the works of this author, and the results of the study are of much interest. These results are briefly summarized as folfows:

"The Scottish cranium is large and capacious; the vertex is seldom heeled or roof-like, but has a low rounded arch in the vertical transverse plane at and behind the bregma." The side walls "bulge slightly outwards in the parieto-squamous region, so that the greatest breadth is usually at or near the squamous suture. The occipital squama bulges behind the inion." The glabella and supraorbital ridges, in men, are fairly but not strongly pronounced, the forehead only slightly recedes from the vertical plane and the nasion is scarcely depressed.'

From the "analysis of the cephalic indices, it would appear that a brachycephalic type of skull prevailed in Fife, in the Lothians, in the northeast counties of Forfar, Kincardine and Banff; and it occurred to some extent in Shetland, in Ayr, in the border county of Peebles, and in Stirlingshire."

"The dolichocephalic type of skull was feebly represented in Fife; it was proportionally more numerous in the Lothians; it

*Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, Vol. XL., Part III., No. 24, 1903.

was represented in Lanark, Ayr, Shetland and the Hebrides. It formed the prevailing type in Wigtonshire, in Caithness, in the skulls from the Highland counties, and in the important series of skulls from Renfrewshire."

The vertical diameter-basion-bregma(mean, in males, 132.4 mm.), was only in two out of 150 of the Scottish crania in which the measurement would be taken in excess of the breadth; the two measurements were equal in four others, while in all the rest, whether cephalic index was high or low, the vertical diameter was less than the breadth.' Scottish skulls are platychamæcephalic.'

'The

Among the 73 male and 42 female crania that were cubed (with shot, according to Turner's method), 'the maximum capacity in the male skulls was 1,855 c.c., the minimum was 1,230 c.c., and the mean was 1,478 c.c.'; 'the maximum in the female was 1,625 c.c., the minimum 1,100 c.c. and the mean 1,322 c.c.' Apparently the Scottish male skull is 'somewhat in excess of the mean ascribed to the crania of European men.' The female skull, similarly as in other races and people, is about ten per cent. less capacious than the male.' 'In twenty-five male dolichocephalic crania the mean capacity was 1,516 c.c.'; in twenty-one male crania of cephalic index 'from 75 to 77.4, the mean capacity was 1,519 c.c.'; in fifteen with cephalic index of 77.5 to 79.9, the mean capacity was 1,452 c.c.'; and in thirteen brachycephalic skulls the mean capacity was 1,469 c.c.' The Scottish skulls 'with dolichocephalic proportions had a distinctly greater mean capacity than the brachycephalic.'

The highest mean cranial capacity was given in the males, by the skulls from Fife, Mid-Lothian, Shetland and Renfrewshire'; while the mean was lowest in the skulls from Edinburgh and Leith, West Lothian, the northeastern counties, the highland counties and the dissecting-room.'

"The face was usually orthognathous, sometimes mesognathous; the nose was prominent, long and narrow, leptorhine; the orbits had usually the vertical diameter high in relation to the transverse, mesoscme or megaseme; the

face was high in relation to the width, leptoprosopic." "The lower jaw had a well-defined angle, the body of the bone was massive in the males, and with a pronounced chin."

So much for this first memoir, which leaves to be desired only greater numbers of specimens from some of the counties and, especially with the relation to cranial capacity, estimates of height of the individuals. A second memoir, to contain an account of prehistoric Scottish skulls, as well as 'a discussion of the character of Scottish crania and heads in their general ethnographical relation to prehistoric races in Britain, and to the people of the adjoining part of the continent of Europe' is to follow.

The Bayet Collection of Fossils.-Negotiations begun more than a year ago by the present writer resulted in July in the acquisition of the paleontological collections of Baron de Bayet of Brussels, Belgium. This collection is especially rich in Mesozoic vertebrates from Solenhofen, Cerin, Holzmaden, Lyme Regis and the province of Benevento, Italy; in Tertiary fishes and other vertebrates, invertebrates and plants from the famous locality of Monte Bolca, near Verona, Italy; from Armissan, near Narbonne, France; from the Belgian Tertiaries; from Sicily, etc. It also contains large and valuable collections of insects and other invertebrates from the Solenhofen beds of Bavaria, a superb collection of European cephalopoda from the Mesozoic and of Paleozoic trilobites and other invertebrates.

Though containing no types and little that is new to paleontology, its acquisition by an American museum is of importance as making accessible for the first time to American stu

dents any considerable collection of European vertebrates without the necessity of a trip to Europe. Dr. C. R. Eastman has undertaken to prepare a memoir descriptive of the fishes in the collection, and it is the desire of the curator of the department to arrange for the treatment of the other groups in a similar manner by equally competent specialists, so that the material in the collection may be made known and available for purposes of comparison to students of paleontology.

It will doubtless be many years before a similar opportunity will present itself for acquiring at a single stroke so large and varied a collection of European fossil vertebrates, and American paleontologists are indebted to Mr. Carnegie for his generosity in supplying the funds necessary for the purchase of this valuable collection.

Field Work during the Season of 1903.— During the season just drawing to a close four parties have been engaged, under the general direction of the curator, in studying the geology and in collecting vertebrate and other fossils from various Tertiary, Mesozoic and other horizons of the west, chiefly in Kansas, Wyoming and Montana.

Pursuant to a general plan undertaken some time since, Mr. Earl Douglass has continued his explorations of the Tertiary lake basins of western Montana and has been successful in securing considerable collections representative of the fossil faunas and floras of those deposits. Of greatest importance among the results of his labors in that region may be mentioned the discovery of Oligocene beds referable to the White River and containing the remains of a rich and varied vertebrate fauna in a good state of preservation. Heretofore the White River formations of that region have yielded comparatively few and for the most part poorly preserved vertebrates. In addition to his work in the Tertiary Mr. Douglass was also able to make some interesting collections from, and observations relating to the Carboniferous and Permian(?) of that region.

During the earlier part of the season Mr. C. W. Gilmore was engaged in completing the

work in a Jurassic dinosaur quarry opened by him during the preceding season at the base of the Freezeout Mountains in southern Wyoming. After successfully completing this work he began, early in June, explorations in the chalk (Niobrara) of western Kansas, where he was joined by Dr. E. H. Sellards as assistant. It is the earnest desire of the curator of this department that the paleontological collections of the museum shall eventually represent in a creditable manner the faunas of all the more important fossilbearing horizons of our own country at least. It was with the idea of acquiring such a representative collection of Niobrara fossils that the work in Kansas by Mr. Gilmore and Dr. Sellards was undertaken. Already some fortyfive boxes of material have been collected and we hope to continue the work in this formation for some years.

Mr. W. H. Utterback completed the unearthing of the splendid skeleton of Diplodocus, discovered by him the preceding year in the Jurassic deposits on the Red Fork of Powder River at the foot of the Big Horn Mountains in central Wyoming. In this same region he also secured considerable portions of the skeletons of two other colossal Jurassic dinosaurs. In the latter part of August Mr. Utterback was transferred to central Montana to continue the work in the Cretaceous of that region carried on during the month of August by the present writer. In this field considerable new and interesting material has been discovered, coming chiefly from the Judith River beds.

Research Work.-In research, beside several shorter papers by the curator, Mr. Douglass and Mr. Gilmore, there have appeared or are now in press an important paper by Mr. Douglass on the vertebrate fauna of the Tertiary lake beds of Montana (Annals Carnegie Museum, Vol. 2, pp. 145–199 with Plate and 37 figures in the text); a paper by the present writer on the 'Oligocene Canidæ' (Memoirs Carnegie Museum, Vol. I., No. II., pp. 65-108, 6 plates and 7 figures in text) and another by the same author on the 'Osteology of Haplocanthosaurus' (Memoirs Carnegie Mu

seum, Vol. II., No. I., pp. 1-75, 6 plates and 30 figures in text).

The most important additions to the exhibition series during the year have been the skeleton of Daphanus felinus mounted by Mr. A. S. Coggeshall and the skeletons of a Loup Fork camel and of an Oligocene sabretoothed cat (Hoplophoneus) mounted by Mr. O. A. Paterson. Two splendid skeletons of Ichthyosaurus have also been placed on exhibition.

Considerable progress has also been made in the preparation of casts of the skeleton of Diplodocus carnegii for exchange with other J. B. HATCHER, Curator Vertebrate Paleontology. CARNEGIE MUSEUM, October 6, 1903.

museums.

ETHNOLOGICAL AND ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CALIFORNIA.

FOR several years the University of California, through its Department of Anthropology and by the liberal assistance of Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, has been engaged in an Ethnological and Archeological Survey of the State. A large amount of material, illustrative of Indian life and culture in past and present times, has been obtained and will form an important part of the anthropological collections which will in the future be exhibited in a museum of the university at Berkeley. At the present time this collection, with others of the department, is temporarily placed in one of the buildings of the affiliated colleges belonging to the University in San Francisco. Here the large and valuable collections are safely cared for until the permanent museum building is secured.

Systematic explorations are being made of the later gravel deposits, of several caves, and of the ancient shellheaps, in order to ascertain when man first occupied this region. The languages of the existing Indians are being studied by experts of the department; the customs and mythology of the different tribes are being carefully recorded; and collections illustrating their arts are being formed for the museum. A study of the physical characters of the various groups of Indians, combined