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names in all their forms, both autonymous and heteronymous, their linguistic affinities, the original location and the migrations, the etymology of the names, and the chief authorities. Judge Henderson, of Winchester, Ill., read a paper before the American Association at St. Louis on the same subject. The notes are by Prof. E. A. Barber.

In noticing the Eleventh Annual Report of the Peabody Museum in the November number of the NATURALIST, sufficient emphasis was not given to the fact that Prof. Putnam claims to have discovered in the earthwork on the Lindsley estate, a map of which accompanies his paper, the vestiges of an ancient settlement. The work was a fortified camp, the large mound the site of some large edifice, the small circular banks the vestiges of houses, and the burial mounds the cemeteries of the dead.

It gives us great pleasure to record that the paper of Col. Garrick Mallery, read before the Nashville meeting of the American Association is attracting the attention which it deserves. The author was detailed, some two years ago, to work upon Indian matters in the office of Major J. W. Powell, geologist in charge of the U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain region. His previous training in literary matters had qualified him for the duties of a historical critic, and hence his research into the early aboriginal history of America led him to the conclusion that the former population had been greatly overestimated. Favorable notice has been taken of Col. Mallery's work in the British Association and in the Royal Society of London. Indeed, the question was seriously raised whether the conduct of the government in controlling its aboriginal population had not been too much influenced by the "melting away" doctrine.

The Rev. M. Eells has published at Portland, Oregon, a small book of hymns in the Chenook jargon language. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon those who have the opportunity that we cannot have too much of this linguistic material. Thomas Jefferson in his "Notes on Virginia," p. 193, wrote: "It is to be lamented then, very much to be lamented, that we have suffered so many of the Indian tribes already to extinguish, without our having previously collected and deposited in the records of literature the general rudiments at least of the languages they spoke."

In the October number of the American Journal of Science and Arts, Mr. W. J. McGee has a paper on the Artificial Mounds of Northeastern Iowa, and the evidence of the employment of a unit of measure in their erection. The author's profession has furnished him with abundant opportunities of measuring mounds, and he seems to have made good use of them. It was long ago supposed that a common standard had been employed by those who erected the earthworks of Ohio.

The Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society publishes, in No. 42, a paper by Col. Charles Whittlesey, entitled Rock Inscriptions in the United States-Ancient Alphabets of Asia."

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In Vol. i, Part I, of Proceedings of the Central Ohio Scientific Association, of Urbana, Ohio, we have another evidence of the growing interest in science which manifests itself in our Western States. The principal contribution is a Report of the Antiquities of Mad River valley, by Prof. Thos. F. Moses, Urbana University, accompanied by eight plates of illustrations. Another valuable contribution to the archæology of Ohio which has hitherto escaped our notice, is the Final Report of the Ohio State Board of Centennial Managers, published in Columbus in 1877.

The following alphabet was prepared by Prof. Wm. D. Whitney to aid collectors in transliterating Indian vocabularies. The almost hopeless confusion in which the material already gathered is involved, is a sufficient motive for all writers on Indian linguistics to adopt it at once, or at least to show cause why they should not. The columns of this department are open to criticisms upon the subject:

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long as in far, father, Gm. haben.

short as in Gm. man, Fr. pas; nearly as in (Eng.) what, not.

as in hat, man.

as in law, far, all.

as Fr. en in en, quand.

as Fr. in in vin, rien, sein.

as Fr. on in on, son, rond.

as in aisle, Gm. mein, i in (Eng.) pine, find.

as oi or oy in oil, boy.

as ou or ow in out, how, Gm. haus.

as in blab, Gm. beben, Fr. belle.

nearly as bh in cobhouse.

as Gm. w in schwer, zwei.

as ch in church, It. cielo.

as in dread, Gm. das, Fr. de.

nearly as dh in madhouse.

as th in then, with.

long as in they, Gm. beet.

short as in then, Gm. belt, Fr. sienne.

as in fife, Gm. feuer, Fr. feu.

as in gig, Gm. gross, Fr. gros.
nearly as gh in loghouse.

[nearly as Arab. ghain.]

as in ha, he, hoot, etc., Gm. haben.
stronger aspiration.

as wh in when.

as in hue.

long as in pique, Gm. ihn, Fr. île.

short as in Gm. will, Fr. ici; nearly as in (Eng.) pick, thin.

as in judge.

as in kick, Gm. kamm, Fr. quand.

j,

k,

k',

nearly as kh in inkhorn.

kh,

as Gm. ch in ich, milch, kirche.

as in lull, Gm. lallen, Fr. lilie.

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long as in rule, fool, Gm. du, Fr. doux.

short as in pull, soon, Gm. null, Fr. nulle.
as in but, run, son, blood.

as Fr. un in un, brun.

as in Gm. kühl, küssen, Fr. plume.

as in valve, Gm. wenn, Fr. veux.

as in wish, will, wayward, nearly as Fr. oui.
as in you, year, Gm. j in ja.

as u in use, pure, mew, feud.

as in zones, Gm hase, Fr. zèle, rose.

as in azure, s in pleasure, fusion, Fr. juger.

FOREIGN.-The October number of the Revue d'Anthropologie of Paris, contains the following communications: Note sur un tumulus préhistorique de Buenos Ayres, par M. Estasnilas Ceballos; Etude sur les Soninkés (Sénégal), par le Dr. BérengerFéraud; Le crâne des noirs de l'Inde (Tribu des Maravars) par M. E. Callamand; Notes sur les Bahnars (Cochin chine), par le Dr. A. Morice. Among the valuable reviews is the following in connection with the great Exposition: Congrès international des sciences anthropologiques, séance d'ouverture; Discours d'ouverture du Président, M. Paul Broca; Rapport sur les Societés d'anthroplogie, par M. Thulié; Rapport sur l'anthropologie générale, par M. P. Topinard; Rapport sur l'ethnologie, par MM. Girard de Rialle et Bordier; Rapport sur le Préhistorique, par MM. G. de Mortillet, E. Cartailhac, et E. Chantre; Rapport sur le Démographie, par M. Chervin.

GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY.

THE MAN OF THE PAMPEAN FORMATION.-The accompanying cut, for which, with the accompanying notes, we are indebted to Prof. Ameghino, of Mercedes, Buenos Ayres, exhibits a transverse section of the stream Frias, demonstrating the geological constitution of the strata at the point where the fossil man of Mercedes was found, together with a plan of the excavation made in exhuming the remains.

The Frias flows through a horizontal plain of uniform geological structure; its depth is from 2 m. to 2.30 m., its bed being scooped out of the pampean strata. Number 1 indicates the

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water-level; 2, is a thin layer of gravel as found in excavating on the right side of the stream, and which was material deposited by the stream which it had washed from more elevated portions of its bed; number 3 is a layer of vegetable mold 10 cm. in thickness, which contains numerous bones of domestic animals introduced into the country since its occupation by Europeans; number 4 is a stratum 40 cm. in thickness, and contains the bones of animals indigenous to the country, and number 5 is a very clayey stratum 20 cm. in thickness, and contains the bones of extinct species of animals, but in a poor state of preservation; number 6 is a marly layer 30 cm. in thickness, in which the bones of the great extinct mammals, Mylodon, Glyptodon, etc., are found; number 7 is 60 cm. in thickness, is not nearly so marly as the preceding, and also contains remains of extinct animals; number 8 is 55 cm. in thickness, of a reddish color, and is composed exclusively of fine sand and clay mixed together. The stratum, number 9, which is more than 1.5 m. in thickness, is only distinguished from the preceding in that it contains a larger proportion of clay. In this layer of pampean soil, at the base of the excavation indicated in the diagram, and at a lower level than the bed of the stream, there were human bones discovered, together with rudely-shaped flints, apparently used in extracting the marrow from bones, a perforated femur of Eutatus, bones with incised and some with radiate markings and striæ, fragments of burnt bones, fragments of burnt or baked earth and a great quantity of charred vegetable substances. In the same deposit, mingled with the objects mentioned, there were also a great many bones of animals found, which indicated the following species:

1. Hoplophorus ornatus (Owen). A great part of the carapace

and some bones.

2. Hoplophorus sp. indet. A portion of the carapace and other

bones.

3. Skull and a large portion of the skeleton of Eutatus of a new species.

4. Portion of the carapace and bones of a very small armadillo of an undetermined species.

5. The skeleton of Canis protalopex (Lund).

6. Bones of many individuals of Lagostomus angustidens Burmeister.

7. Some bones of an undetermined species of horse.

8. Teeth and bones of Cervus pampaus Bravard.

9 and 10. Bones of many rodents of the genera Reithrodon and Hesperomys.

II. A species of Dolichotis.

12. Bones of a carnivore, which Prof. Gervais thinks appertain to a young Machairodus.

13. An ostrich [? Rhea] and many other bones belonging to undetermined species.

THE THEROMORPHOUS REPTILIA.-A paper on this subject was read by Prof. Cope before the National Academy of Sciences at its recent meeting in New York, on November 7, 1878. He stated that he had determined that the scapular arch in the Pelycosauria1 consists of scapula, coracoid and epicoracoid, which form a continuum in the adult, in the same way as the three clements of the pelvis in the same group form an os innominatum. He showed that the tibiale and centrale of the tarsus unite to form an astragalus, which has no movement on the tibia. The fibulare forms a calcaneum. The distal side of the astragalus presents two faces, one of which receives a large part of the proximal extremity of the cuboid.

The structure of the scapular and pelvic arches was stated to be identical with that already described by Owen as belonging to the Anomodontia. Several important characters distinguish this group from the Pelycosauria, but the two together form an order which Prof. Cope thought would have, for the present at least, to be retained as distinct from the Rhynchocephalia. The characters of this order, with its two sub-orders were given as follows:

Pelvic

THEROMORPHA Cope. Scapular arch consisting at least of scapula, coracoid and epicoracoid, which are closely united. arch consisting of the usual three elements, which are united throughout, closing the obturator foramen and acetabulum. Limbs with the phalanges as in the ambulatory types. Quadrate bone proximally united by suture with the adjacent elements. No quadratojugal arch.

Pelycosauria. Two or three sacral vertebrææ; centra notochordal; intercentra usually present. Dentition full.

Anomodontia. Four or five sacral vertebræ; centra not notochordal; no intercentra. Dentition very imperfect or wanting. The Rhynchocephalia have no distal ischio-pubic symphysis, and apparently no epicoracoid bone. They have an obturator foramen, and a quadratojugal arch.

The order Theromorpha was regarded by Prof. Cope as approximating the Mammalia more closely than any other division of 1 See Proceed. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1878, p. 511 and 528.

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