clusion out of the Procés Verbaux of the sittings of the International Conference on the subject of the human jaw of Moulin-Quignon, is, we confess, rather difficult, seeing the contradictory expressions of opinion indulged in on both sides; although on account of the importance of the subject we judged it necessary to give the proceedings to our readers at full length. Those, therefore, who wish to see the whole story reduced into a short and concise form cannot do better than refer to Sir Charles Lyell's summary of the matter here given. It has been recently, in his opinion, established without doubt, that some of the workmen at Moulin-Quignon had been in the habit of forging and burying flint tools, and had, moreover, attained no small skill in the art of fabricating them and passing them off as genuine. "If then," he continues, "so many of the flint implements "are modern counterfeits, a doubt naturally arises as to the authenticity of the jaw itself." May it not have been introduced into the deposit in like manner by one of the workmen anxious to obtain the reward offered for the discovery of human fossils? To this it must be objected that the jaw itself exhibits manifest symptoms of antiquity; first, in being coated with limonite; and, secondly, in several anatomical peculiarities, "rarely found separately, and still more rarely united in any single European individual." Now, where could the fraudulently disposed workman have obtained such a jaw? To this it is answered that at Mesnières, some fifteen miles from Abbeville, in 1862, two skeletons had been found by a labourer, known to be connected with one of the men of Moulin-Quignon, "in an old (celtic?) filled up trench." Portions of these passed into the museum of M. Boucher de Perthes, and great similarity was remarked by Mr. Busk and others, between a lower jaw forming part of these remains and the celebrated jaw of Moulin-Quignon. The possibility has therefore been suggested by Mr. Evans, that the latter might have been procured by the workmen of Moulin-Quignon from the same spot as the former, and interred in the "black seam of the gravel in order to obtain the reward offered for the discovery of human bones in situ. To negative this rather tempting hypothesis it would be advisable, observes Sir Charles, that a careful analysis and comparison of the two bones should be made, and the differences of their composition, if any, be pointed out. Until this has been done, and other points settled, the authenticity of this celebrated jaw cannot be deemed in any way satisfactorily established. It is an interesting fact, moreover, and one well worthy of notice, that since the inquest on the Moulin-Quignon Jaw, several others presenting an extreme similarity to it, have turned up in several places, in caverns and other ancient deposits, and associated with the remains of animals, such as the Reindeer, etc. which now no longer exist in the Southern parts of Europe. And among the numerous human bones found in the cave discovered last year at Gibraltar are 13 or 14 lower jaws, amongst which are several distinguished by characters similar to those of the Moulin-Quignon and Mesnières bones. Besides these two topics, the Appendix to the new edition of the "Antiquity of Man" contains notes on various other points, alluded to in the course of the work, which recent discoveries have thrown light upon. Such are the discovery of flint implements in higher gravel at Fisherton, near Salisbury, by Dr. H. P. Blackmore,* the important discovery by Dr. Torell and Mr. Chydenius, of the existence of living marine animals at enormous depths in the Polar seas, where floating ice covers the surface for ten months in the year, and the results of the Artesian borings carried on by the French in the Sahara, whereby it has been most conclusively proved that the vast sandy desert which occupies so large a part of Northern Africa, was under water at a period when the existing shells of the Mediterranean were already in being. With regard to the latter point Sir Charles Lyell quotes Professor Suess,† of Vienna, as an authority for further inferring the submergence of this area, on account of the fauna and flora of Barbary, being of a European and not of an African type. But Professor Suess is by no means the originator of this inference. In his paper on the Geographical distribution of Birds, in the Linnean Society's Proceedings for 1857, Dr. Sclater had already shown that " Africa north of the Atlas appears to belong to Europe zoologically, and not to the continent with which it is physically joined ;" and the same subject has been discussed and enlarged upon by Dr. Gunther, by Mr. Tristram,§ and by Mr. Wallace,|| the latter having endeavoured to remove Mr. Tristram's objections, that the mammals of Algeria seemed to form an exception to the general similarity of organic life that prevails on each side of the Mediterranean. After all, however, the origin of the idea is, we believe, antecedent to any of these writers, having been first started in the writings of the late lamented Professor Edward Forbes. * See the 'Geologist' for October, 1863. tGeolog. Reichsanstalt,' 1863, p. § Ibis,' 1859, pp. 93, 157. anteà, p. 113. XXVII.—THE ZOOLOGY OF SIBERIA. REISEN IM SÜDEN VON OST-SIBERIEN IN DEN JAHREN 1855-59 INCL. IM AUFTRAGE DER KAIS. GEOGRAPHISCEN GESELLSCHAFT AUSGEFÜHRT VON GUSTAV RADDE. Band I. Die SaügethierFauna. St. Petersburg, 1862. VON MIDDENDORF'S "Sibirische Reise," and Leopold v. Schrenck's "Reisen und Forschungen im Amurlande," in each of which such large contributions were made to our knowledge of the zoology of the remoter portions of the Russian Empire, are now succeeded by a third not less important work, in which a full account of Gustav Radde's recent expedition to Transbaikalia and the southern parts of Eastern Siberia is given. The volume now before us treats only of the Mammals of the region to the exploration of which the expedition was devoted; but a second volume, by the same author, is announced to contain the Birds; a third, by other contributors, to be devoted to the Amphibia, Fishes and part of the Insects; whilst the rest of the zoological materials amassed by the expedition have been handed over to H. v. Schrenck to be worked up by him in the forthcoming volumes of his "Reisen im Amurlande." In the winter of 1855, the members of the East Siberian expedition, which was equipped and sent out at the cost of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society of St. Petersburg, left for their destination. Herr v. Radde followed in the month of April 1855, having received his instructions as regards zoology from the veteran Professor von Brandt, and for Botany from the authorities of the Imperial Botanical Gardens of St. Petersburg. According to Professor von Brandt's sagacious recommendations, the region to be worked by Herr von Radde was the extreme southern frontier of Eastern Siberia, bordering on Chinese territory, which had hardly been visited by any scientific traveller since the time of Pallas. Armed with these instructions, our traveller hastened off to his head-quarters at Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, which he reached on the 30th of May, 1855. From the time requisite for preparations, it was obvious that a long journey could not be made the first year, and Herr von Radde therefore devoted himself, during the summer of 1855, to the exploration of Lake Baikal and its neighbourhood, visiting the fisheries of the Omul (Salmo omul), and other points of interest on the banks of this vast inland sea, which no scientific traveller had explored since the time of Georgi, in 1772. The winter of 1855-6 was passed in Irkutsk, and plans were made for devoting the following summer to the investigation of Southern Dauria, in company with the astronomer of the expedition, Herr Schwarz, and to winter on the Tarei-nor, on the Chinese frontier. Accordingly, on the 1st of March, 1856, our traveller left Irkutsk and crossed the Appel range by the post-road to Tschita, the capital city of Transbaikalia, observing as he went along that our familiar Pinus sylvestris was the only Conifer occurring on these mountains. On the 13th he had reached the military post Kulussutai, at the northern extremity of the Tarei-nor, and was soon busily employed in collecting and preserving the little-known animals of this district, such as Mustela alpina, the Mongolian Voles (Hypudæus mongolicus and H. brandtii), Grus monachus, G. leucogeranus, Syrrhaptes paradoxus, and other species unknown since the times of Pallas. Hence, also, excursions were made to Abagaitui, and other frontier-posts on the borders of the high steppes of Mongolia, in order to get specimens of the Dsiggetai (Equus hemionus), the Antilope gutturosa, the wild Yak (Bos grunniens), and other characteristic animals of this region. Hence, also, the ascent of Sochondo, one of the highest peaks in the neighbourhood, was made, and its height determined at 8,259 feet (English) by the barometer. A visit to the fisheries of the river Onon, in September, and excursions into the forests of the Appel range (where Musks and Tetrao urogalloides Midd. were procured), together with the necessity of waiting some days until Lake Baikal was frozen over, deferred the return to Irkutsk until the 8th January, 1857. In the beginning of April of the same year, Herr Radde left the Siberian capital again for the Upper Amoor, and, travelling slowly down the stream, reached the foot of the Chöchzier mountains, at the junction of the Amoor with its great southern confluent the Ussuri, on the 21st July. Returning hence to the foot of the Bureja mountains higher up the stream, it was determined to pass the winter here; and a hut on the banks of the Amoor was built for that purpose. By the 31st of October the Amoor was frozen over, and the long winter began, which, in the company of two Cossacks and a Tungusian, must have been lonely enough. The monotony was broken at the end of January by a Russian courier, who arrived in a dog-sledge, on his route to St. Petersburg; and other couriers followed a month later. On the 17th of March (1858), the catkins of a Salix and Populus tremula N.H.R.-1864. P bloomed, and gave the first symptoms of returning spring: by the 30th of the same month, species of Eranthis and Adonis were in full blossom. Now began the naturalist's harvest, for which he had waited so many weary months, and the whole summer was passed in reaping it. A convenient steamer going upwards to Blagowestschensk enabled him to deposit the fruits of it in a place of safety; and after another month's excursion in the Bureja mountains, Herr Radde returned again to Irkutsk, which he reached on the 17th January, 1859. Herr Radde's next and final excursion was in the opposite direction, into the higher mountains of the Sajan-chain, to the west of Lake Baikal. During this the great Mongolian Lake Kossogol was visited, and the height of the topmost summit of the adjoining range of Munku-Sardik determined at 11,452 feet. In October, 1859, Herr Radde returned with the spoils of this last expedition to Irkutsk, and after nearly five years' absence, regained St. Petersburg in safety, in the following January. We now proceed to notice the Mammals met with by Herr Radde during his travels, which, from the extent and duration of his researches, we may assume embrace all the most characteristic forms tenanting this part of Inner Asia. 1. Ursus arctos, L.-The European Bear is universally distributed over this part of Asia, with the exception of the Mongolian Steppes. The skulls obtained in the Ussuri-region agree with the variety termed by Middendorf beringensis. The skins from the higher Sajanrange present the same yellowish grey colouring of the fur as those upon which the species U. isabellinus Horsf. and U. syriacus Ehr. have been established. 2. Ursus tibetanus, F. Cuv.-Two skins, one from the Burejadistrict and the other from the Ussuri-region, are referred to Ursus tibetanus, and there is no doubt from the reports of the natives, that a second species of Bear, of arboreal habits, is found in this country. Ursus tibetanus being given by Temminck as an inhabitant of Japan, Herr Radde has referred the Siberian Bear to this species. But the Japanese Bear is now generally considered a distinct species, under the name of Ursus japonicus.* It would be very desirable that comparisons should be made between a series of specimens of the * See Schlegel, Handl. t. d. Dierk. pt. 1, p. 42, and Sclater, P. Z. S. 1862, p. 261. |