overlooking the stream. A few inches below the surface the neck bones were found, and below these the remainder of the skeleton, with the exception of the bones of the hands and feet. The skull being wanting, it could not be determined whether the remains were those of an Indian or of a white man, but in either case the sepulture was peculiarly aboriginal. A careful exhumation and critical examination by Mr. K. disclosed the fact that around the lower extremities of the body had been placed a number of large stones, which revealed traces of fire, in conjunction with charred wood, and the bones of the feet had undoubtedly been consumed. This fact makes it appear reasonably certain that the subject had been executed, probably as a prisoner of war. A pit had been dug, in which he was placed erect and a fire kindled around him. Then he had been buried alive, or, at least, if he did not survive the fiery ordeal, his body was imbedded in the earth, with the exception of his head, which was left protruding above the surface. As no traces of the cranium could be found, it seems probable that the head had either been burned or severed from the body and removed, or else left a prey to ravenous birds. The skeleton, which would have measured fully six feet in height, was undoubtedly that of a man. This forms an interesting example of the cruelty practiced by the aboriginal tribes on their prisoners. In the neighborhood of this grave many stone implements have been found and the remains of extensive Lenni Lenape encampments can be traced.-E. A. Barber.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL NEWS.-Mr. A. F. Berlin, Reading, Pa., calls attention to polished arrow-points similar to those mentioned by Mr. J. D. McGuire in our last number. It may be that these socalled arrow-points were knives. Major Powell sent to the National Museum, three years ago, a collection of Pai-Ute flint knives glued in wooden handles, the blades of which would be taken for arrow-points. They are figured and described in Dr. Rau's work on the Archæological Collection of the U. S. National Museum, No. 287 of Contributions to Knowledge, page 2.

The circular issued by the Smithsonian Institution recently, calling for information relating to the permanent archæological remains of North America, has met with a hearty response from many quarters. Dr. G. S. B. Hempstead has prepared a revised chart of the Portsmouth Works at the mouth of the Ohio River, containing many more details than plate XXVII of Squier and Davis' work. Other enthusiastic archæologists have promised to do the same for their respective counties. As the descriptions are received they are filed away in the name of the contributor, who will receive, in the summing up, credit for the work done.

Mr. Frank C. Cushing, the enthusiastic young assistant in the Ethnological Department of the National Museum, has recently visited an old soapstone quarry on the farm of Mr. John B.

Wiggins, near Chulu, Amelia County, Va. He not only succeeded in finding the localities where the ancient workmen had operated, but discovered in the neighborhood the quartz bed where they had obtained their implements for working the potstone. Mr. Cushing, to test their method, constructed a quartz pick and detached with it a mass of steatite. He made an accurate survey of the quarry and has reproduced in plaster a miniature model of it similar to the plaster representations of the cliff dwellings prepared by Mr. Jackson, of the Hayden Survey. A large number of pots, picks, mauls, tomahawks, &c., were also secured for the National Museum.

Mr. Edwin A. Barber, of West Chester, Pa., is collecting materials for a work upon pipes and smoking customs in all ages and nations. In order to make his work exhaustive he desires to know of every article ever written upon that subject. He also wishes sketches, photographs, cuts, electrotypes of aboriginal pipes, ancient and modern. Chewing and snuffing will come in for their share in the description. Inasmuch as we cannot get together often in our country, owing to the great distances, and talk over those matters which are interesting to all, the next best thing is to make the NATURALIST our medium of communication. We shall be glad to publish the name of any anthropologist who is working in a special field.

Dr. Theodor Poesche, of Washington, has published through Costenoble of Jena, a volume of 240 pages, entitled "Die Arier, Ein Beitrag zur Historischen Anthropologie." The author has collected a great deal of evidence to show that the theory of the Indian origin of the Arian races is untenable. The relationships existing between the various European races of that stock is traced and the author is inclined to believe them to be autochthonous so far as we know anything about them.

Part second of the Revue d' Anthropologie opens with a learned paper from the pen of Dr. Broca, upon cerebral nomenclature, including the names of the divisions and subdivisions of the hemispheres as well as their anfractuosities. Those of us who grew up in the notion that the human brain was a mass of convolutions, having no more order than the viscera or a dish of maccaroni, will be pleased to see what progress has been made in the investigations originated by Gratiolet, and since prosecuted by eminent anatomists, among whom M. Broca occupies a high rank. The object of this study is to localize and name the parts of the brain so that cerebral topography may become a useful part of anthropological study. The Revue always contains a large amount of useful matter edited by the most distinguished men in France under the titles: Revue Critique, Revue Préhistorique, Revue des Livres, Revue des Journaux, Extraits et Analyses, and Miscellanea. The Bulletin Bibliographique, a very valuable feature, is conducted by M. Dureau.

Parts ii., iii. and iv. of the Bulletins de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris for 1877, come to us all at once. The operations of this society are so important that the entire contents of the numbers will be given, in the hope that some of our readers will light upon something for which they have been searching.

Part ii.—De la circoncision des filles [continued from Part i.]; Reprise de la discussion sur la religiosité; Rapport sur les archives du Musée national de Rio de Janeiro; De l'astigmatisme visuel; de la prostitution et ses rapports avec la dépopulation; Corses et Albanais, Types bulgares; Des dialectes berrichons; Sur la technique microskopique dans ses applications a l'etude de la chevelure dans les races humaines; Sur les mariages consanguins; Sur la fécondité des prostituées; Sur la cerveau a l'etat fœtal; Sur la montagne de l'Espiant; Caverne de Cravanche-Belfort; Topographie cérebrale comparée de l'homme et du cynocéphale; De la génealogie de l'homme d'apres Haeckel; Squelette humain a onze paires de côtes; Gravure et sculpture des os avec le silex; Amulettes des grottes de Menton.

Part iii.-Continuation of Gravure et sculpture, &c.; Sur une amulette en schiste talqueux de Menton; Sur les découvertes de la baie de Penhouet; Sur l'origine des Oromo et la durée d'une generation; Sur l'angle orbito-occipital; Sur le tatouage par incision et torsion de la peau; Sur les crânes Savoyards; Sur les origines de fer; Sur la langue vei et la race Kruman; Sur un cas d'hémitérie héréditaire; Sur le Grand Chaco; De la trépanation du crâne sur un chien vivant; Sur une statistique des Apophyses styloïdes vertébrales chez l'homme; De la plagiocephalie chez le singe; Transformation de l'oreille chez les vertebrés, Responsibilité des sourds-muets; Crâne tartare, Pli transversale de la main du singe chez l'homme; Sur un cerveau de gorille, Sur la statistique des naissances gémellaires et leur rapport avec la taille.

Part iv. Sur le cerveau de gorille; Fouilles en Andalousie; Mensuration chez les conscrits; Indiens de Paya; Deformation syphilitique du crâne; Croyance à l'immortalité de l'âme; De la vue humaine; Sur les Celtes; L'espèce humaine; Type de l'enfant dans l'art et dans la science; Textes relatifs aux Celtes; Collection préhistorique de Budapest; Les Penongs Piâtes; Maladie des Scythes; Fouilles de Caucase; Perforations crâniennes du Perou; Explorations dans le Sahara; Crânes d'anciens cimetières; Rapport sur les Esquimaux du Jardin d'Acclimatation; Les Esquimaux d' Asie; Recherches craniométriques; Anciens peuples de l'Europe Centrale; Questionnaire sur le Grænland; Synostoses crâniennes; Nomenclature cérebrale; Des apophyses styloïdes lombaires; Composition du lait de la femme Esquimau; Momies du Haut Pérou; L'ambre préhistorique; Groupe de Lapons obsérves à Londres; Circonvolution limbique.

GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY.

THE VERTEBRÆE OF RACHITOMUS.-This genus of Labyrinthodonts was characterized in this journal for May, 1878 (p. 328)', from vertebræ. Since that date, the reception of other specimens enables me to add some points to the definition already given.

There is an element representative of the centrum wedged in between the superior external angles of adjacent intercentra, as in Trimerorhachis. These, as well as the intercentra, differ from those of that genus in their greater degree of ossification, which is so far complete as to greatly contract the canalis corde dorsalis. The central elements of opposite sides do not unite on the middle line, although in contact. The neurapophysis is produced downwards and outwards, terminating in the simple diapophysis, with rib articulation. The inferior articular faces of the arch are two on each side, one for the central element in front, and the other for the one behind it. The whole is surmounted by a continuous neural spine, which is expanded at the summit in the known species. The ilium is a subspatulate flat bone, with its rather thin oval proximal extremity directed backwards, and extending across three centra.

It is probable that the vertebræ of the genus Eryops (Pr. A. P. S. 1878, 520), and perhaps those of all the true Labyrinthodontia, are constituted as in Rhachitomus.-E. D. Cope.

THE POSITION OF DIPTERUS.-Dr. R. H. Traquair has recently studied the structure of Dipterus and has determined several points which are essential to a knowledge of its systematic position. He finds that in its suspensorial apparatus it agrees with Ceratodus as well as in its palopterygoid bones. He infers that the character of the pectoral fins is identical with that of Ceratodus. The skull differs from that of the genus in question in the greater degree of ossification of all its parts. Dr. Traquair places Dipterus definitely among the Dipnoi, as already done inferentially by Günther. He also regards Paladaphus as a member of the same sub-class; and discovers that Chirodus is based on the splenial tooth of a Platysomid fish.

A FOSSIL WALRUS DISCOVERED AT PORTLAND, MAINE.-The larger part of the skeleton of a walrus, including the skull with tusks over five inches long, and all but two of the teeth, has lately been unearthed from the Quaternary Clays of Portland, Maine. It was partially imbedded in a layer of blue clay a foot in thickness, overlaid by a layer of lighter clay two feet two inches thick, containing casts and shells of Mya arenaria, Macoma subulosa, Mytilus edulis, Cardium (Serripes) grænlandicum, Astarte striata, Saxicara distorta, Nucula antiqua, Leda tenuisulcata, L. truncata, Natica clausa, and pusilla, and Balanus. The skeleton is in the museum of the Portland Society of Natural History.

1 See Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1878, p. 526.

GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS.1

THE AMAZON--The U. S. corvette Enterprise, Commander Thomas O. Selfridge, arrived off Para, Brazil, on the 24th of May, having been ordered to make a survey of the Amazon river as far as Manaos, and the Madeira as far as San Antonio. From a correspondent of the New York Herald we learn that the Enterprise started up the river on the 3d of June. Passing the mouth of the Tocantins she entered the first narrow canal. These natural canals or furos resemble the artificial channel made by Capt. Eads at the mouth of the Mississippi-the heavy growth of aquatic plants and the thick interlacing of the roots of the trees forming in these narrow passages barriers similar to the mattresses used by him. A frigate may pass through these natural jetties of the Amazon without fear, for the rush of water keeps the way clear.

Two serious accidents to the machinery caused considerable delay, but the survey had been conducted successfully at the rate of about sixty miles a day up to the date of this letter, on June 15th, off Serpa, thirty miles below the mouth of the Madeira. No triangulation is undertaken, but simply a track chart is to be made. The points noted are the depths, the profile of the shore, the position of the islands, the courses steered, the bearings of prominent points, the fixings of landmarks, the strength of the current, the character of the banks, the compass deviations, the meteorological changes, the barometric altitudes and the latitude and longitude of the towns, villages, bars, shoals and rocks of the river.

A correspondent of the New York World gives an interesting account of the Island of Marajo, the largest in South America, at the mouth of the Amazon. Its area is nearly that of the State of New York. This immense tract, formed by alluvial deposits, is a vast plain, without hill or valley or springs of water. The island is divided diagonally into two sections nearly equal in extent, the south-western being covered by forest, and the northwestern being an extensive prairie with occasional groups of trees. The former section is of great fertility and yields a great variety of valuable timber, medicinal plants and a great number of India rubber trees (Syphonia elastica). The prairie is devoted to cattle raising, and their number is estimated at 250,000. In many places the land is below the level of the river bed, and during the rainy season these tracts are almost entirely submerged, and overflowing fill the lakes and rivers of the island, of which Lake Arary and the river of the same name are the most important. With the exception of some plantations of sugar cane and cocoa, the raising of cattle on the prairies, and the manufacture of the India rubber in the forest region are the only industries of this extensive territory. The population is supposed to be about 36,000.

1 Edited by ELLIS H. YARNALL, Philadelphia.