2. ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY.

THE most important event of the past quarter in Pre-historic Archaology is no doubt the opening of the Blackmore Museum, at Salisbury. The value of this museum lies in the fact of its being a special collection of antiquities-characterizing a particular periodwith illustrative modern examples. Mr. William Blackmore stated, at its opening, that the nucleus of this museum is the renowned "Squier and Davis" American collection, which was purchased by him in the year 1864. To this has been added a valuable collection of stone implements from the various caves and drift-deposits of England and the Continent, with a most interesting illustrative series of the modern stone implements at present used by various savage races. Mr. Blackmore has munificently given this remarkable collection to his native town; he has also built a museum for its reception, and has provided for its future maintenance. Its management has been undertaken from year to year by the committee of the Salisbury and South Wilts Museum, with the consent of the Blackmore Museum Trustees, in whom the property is vested. The trustees are three in number, namely, Mr. Blackmore, Dr. Blackmore (brother of the founder, and well known for his researches on the drift deposits and the flint implements contained in them), and Mr. E. T. Stephens: the last two being also the honorary curators. Henceforth those who wish to learn the evidence which is known respecting the antiquity of man and collateral questions connected with it will find this museum a most valuable, and indeed indispensable, aid. It was opened in the beginning of September with great éclat, the proceedings, which occupied two days, including the reading of papers, a conversazione, and the formal presentation at its opening by Mr. Blackmore.

No account of the proceedings of the "Congrès Paléoethnologique" seems to have been published; but Mr. Boyd Dawkins has printed in the Intellectual Observer' for October a paper read by him, entitled "Man and the Pleistocene Mammals of Great Britain." It consists chiefly of an historical account of the various discoveries of flint implements in Great Britain, and especially of his own findings at Wookey Hole. He makes, however, one statement, which it may be useful to reproduce, as showing that these indications of man's coexistence with extinct animals are not so wonderfully abundant as we seem, almost unconsciously, to have been brought to believe:-"Out of the thirty caverns explored in Great Britain, the contents of which I have classified, four only have yielded human remains; while out of forty river-deposits containing mammalia, only three have furnished any trace of man. Had man been very abundant in those days, we might certainly have hoped to have

found his implements more widely spread, and especially as they were fashioned out of a material that is almost indestructible."

In the same and the succeeding number of the 'Intellectual Observer,' Mr. Jewitt gives the first two portions of a most interesting description of the Grave-mounds of Derbyshire and their contents. He divides them into three divisions, according to their age, namely, the Celtic, the Romano-British, and the Anglo-Saxon, by far the greatest number belonging to the first-named period, and the smallest number to the second. In these two instalments he describes the barrows of the Celtic period, the various modes of interment, and the objects of flint, bone, stone, and pottery found in the graves. The barrows contain interments by inhumation and cremation. In the former case, "the body is mostly found in a contracted position on its side," but occasionally it is found lying at full length. In the latter case, "the remains of the burnt bones, &c., have been collected together, and placed either in a small heap or in a cinerary urn." Referring to the immense amount of heat which must have been used in burning the bodies, Mr. Jewitt asks," Is it too much to suppose that the discovery of lead may be traced to the funeral pyre of our early forefathers?" The cinerary urns are either inverted over a flat stone, or are upright and the mouth covered by one. When the bones are placed in a heap they are often surrounded by stones. Frequently the interments have been made in cists, and a barrow may contain one or more of these chambers; but sometimes the barrows are formed almost wholly of earth. The flint implements are varied in form, and frequently of exquisite workmanship; the stone implements consist of adzes (celts) and hammer heads, as well as whetstones and other miscellaneous objects. Besides these, are beads, rings, studs, necklaces, &c., of jet; celts, daggers, awls, pins, &c., of bronze; and a variety of articles in bone, including modelling tools, personal ornaments, lance and spearheads, whistles (?), hammers, &c. Not a single article of gold has been found in any Celtic barrow opened in Derbyshire, but a few have been turned up by the plough. The pottery consists of cinerary urns, food vessels, drinking cups, and the so-called incense cups. Mr. Jewitt considers that this pottery has been baked by the action of fire, and with regard to the "Incense Cups," he thinks it probable that they were used to receive the ashes of infants sacrificed at the graves of adults-their mothers, for instance.

The report of the Nottingham Meeting of the British Association, which was published as usual twelve months after date, contains the "Second Report of the Committee for Exploring Kent's Cavern, in Devonshire.' The facts made known up to the present time may be briefly summed up as follows:-The present floor of the cave was strewn with immense boulders, which had fallen from the roof, between and beneath which was a deposit of black mould or

mud, from three to twelve inches thick; beneath this was a stalagmitic floor, graduating downwards into a firm stony breccia, and beneath this again a thick accumulation of " cave-earth," of unknown depth, including a large number of angular fragments of limestone, but without any indication of stratification. In the black mould have been found objects of human workmanship in slate, stone, bone, and bronze; a few flint flakes, two fragments of plates of smelted copper, and numerous pieces of pottery. With them were associated bones of various existing animals, such as pig, deer, sheep, badger, fox, numerous rodents, &c.; pieces of charred wood, and shells of several kinds of snails.

Few remains have been discovered in the stalagmitic floor; they consist of terrestrial and marine shells of existing species, and bones of various recent and extinct animals. In the cave-earth a large number of bones of extinct animals have been found, including Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Felis spelæa, Ursus spelæus, and Hyæna spelæa; with these were discovered nearly one hundred flint implements, excluding doubtful specimens and mere chips. This cave-earth has been worked to the depth of four feet, and the Committee have kept a record of what was discovered in each level of one foot deep. The flint implements and bones were most numerous in the first foot below the stalagmite, and the implements of most elaborate workmanship were found in the lowest levels, of three and four feet deep; those from the four-foot level being "the most elaborately finished tools of the cavern series."

Speaking generally as to the relative abundance of implements in the levels, the Committee state that "up to this time each level has been rather less productive than those above it." The explorations of the Committee have been scrupulously made in those portions of the cavern which have not been disturbed by earlier investigators, whose statements they have been able to confirm in every particular, except the asserted occurrence of Machairodus and Hippopotamus, and human bones, which they have not yet met with. We look forward to reading the conclusions at which the Committee have arrived in a future report.

In a pamphlet, entitled 'A Descriptive List of Flint Implements found at St. Mary Bourne, with Illustrations of the Principal Types,' Mr. Joseph Stephens records (at p. 23) his discovery of a spot which had evidently been the scene of flint working during a long period, occupying a small space in an open field, known as Breachfield, on a hill near the village of St. Mary Bourne. In a few visits he succeeded in finding "more than 100 cores, about 200 arrowhead and spear-head flakes, a score of axes, besides a quantity of so-named scrapers, sling-stones, awls, drills, wedges, hammers, crushers, and a heap of pot-boilers." He states that all the implements are of the "surface-type," and mostly of very rude workman

ship; that they possess a "strong family likeness," as if they were the work of a particular tribe or family; and that they are diffused through the soil, fresh specimens appearing after heavy rains.

An important work, entitled "L'uomo fossile dell' Italia Centrale," by Signor Igino Cocchi, has been published in the third volume of the Memoirs of the Italian Society of Natural Science.' The author describes the Post-pliocene and Recent deposits of Central Italy, and the Pliocene strata of the Val d'Arno and Val di Chiana, with the fossil mammals, mollusks, and plants, obtained from the latter. The Recent deposits he divides into Modern, consisting of various alluvial formations, and an Ancient alluvium, yielding obsidian implements. The Post-pliocene deposits are divided into Upper and Lower, the former comprising the Loess as its upper member, without any fossils or human remains, but probably belonging to the Reindeer-period; and as its lower member, various deposits known as the Diluvium of Central Italy, &c., containing remains of Bos primigenius and its variety B. trochoceros, &c., together with stone knives. The Lower Post-pliocene strata are subdivided into an upper portion, consisting of ferruginous conglomerate, &c., without human remains, but otherwise containing similar fossils to the underlying deposit. The lower portion consists of lacustrine clays of great thickness, with layers of peat towards its superior margin; it contains bones of Elephas primigenius, Cervus euryceros, Bison priscus, and a species (probably new) of Equus; it has also yielded stone implements, and a human cranium, the latter from the plain of the Aretino. It is satisfactory to learn that at last a fossil human cranium has been discovered associated with remains of extinct animals in a true stratified deposit, and whether this deposit be termed Lower Post-pliocene, or anything else, there seems little room for doubt that the cranium was imbedded contemporaneously with the remains of Elephas primigenius, &c., and that Man lived in Italy contemporaneously with those animals.

M. Pierre Béron has devoted a portion of the third volume of his Physique céleste' to a discussion, entitled "La Terre et l'Homme avant et après le Déluge." So many wonderfully farfetched ideas are crowded into 150 pages, that they would render the ancient cosmogonies commonplace by comparison. To Anthropologists this book will be a curious study, and will show them how very wild the imagination of a clever man can run; beyond this we cannot see that it has any scientific value.

Mr. Rose's extensive collection of implements and weapons illustrative of the Stone Age in Denmark has been exhibited in the museum of the Anthropological Society during the past month. It is perhaps more remarkable for the number of specimens it contains than for the variety of types illustrated, although in the latter respect also it has a certain value.

3. ASTRONOMY.

(Including the Proceedings of the Royal Astronomical Society.) We regret to have to record the death of three distinguished astronomers-Sir James South, Lord Wrottesley, and Lord Rosse.

Sir James South was one of the founders of the Royal Astronomical Society, and for some time its President. We are indebted to him for a valuable catalogue of double stars, which he compiled in conjunction with Sir John Herschel. Of late, his great age and increasing infirmity have prevented him from taking any important part in furthering the progress of Astronomy; but he has continued to take great interest in the science.

Lord Wrottesley was also one of the founders of the Royal Astronomical Society. He received the Society's Gold Medal for his 'Catalogue of Stars.' He was President of the Royal Society from 1854 to 1857.

William Parsons, Earl of Rosse, was born in 1800. He took first-class mathematical honours at Oxford in 1822. In 1843 he presided over the meeting of the British Association. From 1849 to 1854 he was President of the Royal Society. He is chiefly celebrated for the ingenuity and mechanical ability displayed in the construction of the great Parsonstown reflecting telescope. In 1831, Lord Rosse had erected a telescope, one yard in diameter, and nine yards in focal length, smaller, but probably more efficient than Sir W. Herschel's great reflector. Not only was the construction of this instrument superintended by Lord Rosse, but he had worked upon the speculum with his own hands. Encouraged by the success of this instrument, he commenced the construction of a more gigantic telescope. The new instrument was fifty-two feet in focal length, and seven feet in diameter, with a six-feet speculum. It was first applied to the survey of the heavens in 1845. We could not spare one-tenth part of the space which would be required even to summarize the work of the great reflector. It must therefore suffice for us to say, with the late Professor Nichol, that "it has converted what was twilight into daylight and has penetrated into regions of space formerly enveloped in utter darkness. It has also brought within our ken a new and wider circle

twilight, and has enlarged correspondingly our estimate of the unknown--of the boundary of darkness lying beyond the penumbral band that encloses our "circle of light."

We were not favoured, as had been hoped and expected, with a display of the November shooting-stars. We hear of countless meteors having been seen in Paris, but the account is not confirmed by trustworthy authorities. In England there was certainly no display, though several shooting-stars were seen. We do not hear

VOL. V.

F