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plexity of development which characterize the Caucasian brain; and hence the reason why the large-brained European differs from and so far surpasses the smallbrained savage in the complexity of his manifestations, both intellectual and moral. In conclusion, he observed that the leading characters of the various races of mankind have been maintained to be simply representatives of a particular type in the development of the highest or Caucasian; the Negro exhibiting permanently the imperfect brow, projecting lower jaw, and slender bent limbs of the Caucasian child some considerable time before its birth, the aboriginal Americans representing the same child nearer birth, and the Mongolian the same newly born.

Exploration dans l'Afrique centrale, de Serre-Leone à Alger, par Timbuctu. By JULES GERARD.

On leaving Sierra Leone, the author proposed to visit the source of the Niger, and also to visit the Republic of Liberia. He should then make for the Kong Mountains, between which district and Timbuctoo a different race of natives was found. He did not propose to travel with a caravan, but with the tribes of the district. At Timbuctoo, or Ain Saleh, he hoped to discover the papers and journals of Major Laing, the African traveller, who was assassinated near Timbuctoo. The author expressed a confident belief that these papers were still in existence, since the natives of the interior had almost a superstitious veneration for written characters, and treasured the most worthless scraps until long after they were illegible. His route would be through a country possessing a double interest, both geographical and ethnological. The journey was long and perilous; but he had weighed the difficulties of the route, and confidently expected to make his way from Sierra Leone to Algeria in safety.

A Letter from Dr. LIVINGSTONE, communicated by Sir Roderick Murchison. "Shupanga, River Zambesi, April 29, 1862. "My dear Sir Roderick Murchison,-With a sore, sore heart I must tell you of the loss of my much-loved wife, whose form was laid in the grave yesterday morning. She died in Shupanga-house on the evening of the 27th, after about seven days' illness. I must confess that this heavy stroke quite takes the heart out of me. Everything else that has happened only made me more determined to overcome; but with this sad stroke I feel crushed and void of strength. Only three short months of her society after four years' separation! I married her from love, and the longer I lived with her I loved her the more. A good wife, and a good, kind, brave-hearted mother was she, and deserved all the praises you bestowed on her at our parting dinner, for teaching her own, and the native children too at Kolobeng. I try to bow to the blow as from our Heavenly Father, who orders all things for us. Some may afford to be stoical, but I should not be natural if I did not shed many tears over one who so deserved them. I never contemplated exposing her in the lowlands. I proposed that the Nyassa steamer should sail out, and on reaching Kongone cut wood and steam up the river. This involved but a few days in the lowlands; but another plan was preferred. She (i. e. the steamer) came in pieces in a brig. Gladly accepting the kind offer of Captain Wilson, of her Majesty's ship Gorgon,' to help us up to the Murchison cataracts, we found by a month's trial that the state in which the engines were precluded ascending the Shire with the pieces on board the 'Pioneer.' We were forced to put her together at Shupanga, and we have been three months, instead of three or four days, down here. Had my plan been adhered to--but why express useless regrets? All had been done with the best intentions. But you must remember how I hastened the first party away from the Delta, and though I saved them, got abused for breaking the Sabbath. Then I prevented Bishop Mackenzie's party landing at all, till these same unhealthy months were past, and no one perished until the bishop came down to the unhealthy lowlands and died. The Portuguese have taken advantage of the sanitary knowledge we have acquired, and send their teté at once. They lost but two of a detachment, while formerly, by keeping them at Quillimane and Senna, nearly all were cut off.

"I shall do my duty still, but it is with a darkened horizon I set about it. Mr.

Rae put the hull of the new steamer together in about a fortnight after we brought up the keel. She looks beautiful and strong, and I have no doubt will answer all our expectations when we get her on the lake. "Ever affectionately yours,

"DAVID LIVINGSTONE,"

On Serious Inaccuracies in the Great Survey of the Alps, south of Mont Blanc, as issued by the Government of Sardinia. By W. MATHEWS, Jun., M.A., F.G.S.

The maps referred to were the six-sheet map of Savoy and Piedmont which appeared in 1841, the great ninety-one-sheet map now in course of publication, and that attached to the work entitled 'Le Alpi che cingono l'Italia,' dated 1845, all of which were issued by the War Department of the Sardinian Government. Among the many cases of error, the most extraordinary was that of the Mont Iséran, a mountain stated to be nearly 13,300 feet high, hitherto supposed to be the culminating peak of the Graian Alps, and represented as situated in Savoy, immediately on the east of the Col of the same name. From investigations made in the country by Mr. Mathews and other travellers since the year 1859, it was now conclusively established that no such peak exists in the situation in which it is placed by the Sardinian engineers. The height of the so-called Mont Iséran was determined trigonometrically at the commencement of the present century by Colonel Coraboeuf, of the Etat-Major Français, and on referring to his original memoir, it appears that the peak he measured is situated in Italy, and is, in fact, the Grand Paradis, a mountain nearly fifteen miles distant from the supposed site of the Mont Iséran. Mr. Mathews next described the position of the eight principal summits of the Graian Alps, rising above 12,000 feet, most of which had been ascended for the first time, and their altitudes determined, by members of the Alpine Club within the last three years. He showed that these mountains were most incorrectly represented on the maps, and stated his conviction that the main Alpine ranges had been roughly drawn in the office of the War Department and never properly surveyed.

Decipherment of the Phoenician Inscription on the Newton Stone, Aberdeenshire. By the Rev. Dr. MILL.

The subject of this paper was an inscribed stone, found at a village in Aberdeenshire, some miles from the coast, and in a country containing many of what are commonly called Druidical monuments. Dr. Mill read the inscription backwards, decided that the letters were Phoenician, and explained them by the corresponding letters of the Hebrew alphabet. According to his interpretation, it was a votive monument dedicated to Eshmùn, god of health (the Tyrian Esculapius), in gratitude for favours received during "the wandering exile of me thy servant,"-the dedicator being "Han-Thanit-Zenaniah, magistrate, who is saturated with sorrow." Dr. Mill discussed the question whether Han-Thanit-Zenaniah had suffered from disease or shipwreck, and whether his sorrow had been caused by the loss of companions, or friends, or relations. He discussed also the peculiarity of the word used in the signification of magistrate, and pointed out that he appeared to have been a man of consular dignity who had commanded a ship or fleet which came to Britain, and that this and other circumstances pointed to the earlier period of the history of Tyre.

On Recent Notices of the Rechabites. By Signor PIEROTTI.

Towards the end of April 1860, the author, travelling south of the Dead Sea, and in a valley about two miles therefrom, met a tribe of Rechabites, whose object was to procure a supply of linen and salt; the next day another tribe arrived, on a similar errand; these all described themselves as descendants of Ishmael-a mistake of course if they were really Rechabites, which they also claimed to be. They were exceedingly clean in their dresses and persons-cleaner than any other Bedouins; but the most singular point connected with them was that they had a

copy of the Scriptures in Hebrew. With regard to their being descendants of Rechab, they quoted Jeremiah xxxv. 4-7. They stated themselves to be 600,000 in number, thus confirming the prophecy, and the chief location of the tribes to be the south-east of the Mountains of Moab. Their general sojourn is on the west shore of the Dead Sea, and some of their members had been heard to say prayers at the tomb of a Jewish rabbi, in the Hebrew language. A rabbi named Gadd fell into their hands, and was robbed of everything, but bewailing his loss in the words commencing "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God," and being overheard, the tribe who had robbed him returned him all the spoil. He endeavoured to induce them to part with a copy of their Scriptures, which he actually saw, but they said that money was of no consequence to them, and that the books were very expensive in transcription.

On Terrestrial Planispheres. By the Chevalier IGNAZIO VILLA.

On the Trade of the Eastern Archipelago with New Guinea and its Islands. By ALFRED R. WALLACE, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S.

The part of New Guinea with which trade is regularly maintained extends from the eastern extremity of the great Geelvink Bay, in about long. 137° E., to very nearly the same longitude on the south coast, a little beyond the river Utanata. This is a coast-line of more than 1200 miles, and it embraces also the islands of Jobie, of Biak and Sook, Waigiou, Salwatty, Batanta, Mysol, and the Ké and Aru Islands, all of which are inhabited by branches of the Papuan race.

From the interior parts of New Guinea the only articles of commercial importance are aromatic barks and wild nutmegs. From the coasts and islands, tripang or bèche-de-mer, pearl-shell, and tortoiseshell are all obtained in abundance, and form the most valuable portion of the trade. Less in quantity and importance are pearls, sago (raw and in cakes), birds of paradise, mats, palm-leaf boxes, and rice in the husk (paddy). These articles are mostly consumed in the East, some (as the aromatic Mussoi bark) in Java, others (the tripang and pearls) in China, the pearlshell being the only article the whole of which finds its way to Europe.

The trade is almost entirely carried on by native prahus from Celebes and the Moluccas-rude vessels, sometimes built entirely without iron, carrying mat-sails on a triangular mast, and altogether incapable of beating against the wind. They therefore make but one voyage a year, going at the beginning of the west monsoon in December and January, and returning with the east monsoon in July and August. The trade is entirely carried on by barter,-calicoes, red cotton, bar-iron, choppers, axes, cheap German knives, Chinese crockery, brass wire, coloured beads, silver coins, tobacco, arrack, and opium being the articles chiefly in demand by the natives, some being required in one district, while a different assortment is requisite in another. In some parts, as at Dorey, Mysol, and Aru Islands, trade is carried on with peace and regularity; in others, as Jobie and the neighbourhood of Maclure's Inlet, bargains are made by both parties fully armed and ready, should the negotiations not prove satisfactory, to settle the matter by a deadly combat. In these parts scarcely a year passes but some traders are killed either in open combat or by hidden treachery, and whole crews are often massacred.

To give some idea of the extent of this trade, I may mention that when I visited the Aru Islands in 1857, there were 15 large prahus from Macassar, besides about 100 small ones from various other islands, and I estimated the value of the produce which they took away at about £20,000.

Sago is the staff of life in these countries, and the chief support of all engaged in the New Guinea trade. To see sago manufactured by the natives is an extraordinary sight. A whole tree-trunk, about 20 feet long and 5 feet in circumference, is, by a few days' labour, converted into human food. A good-sized tree will produce 30 bundles of raw sago, weighing about 30 lbs. each bundle, and when baked yielding about 60 cakes of 3 to a pound. Two of these cakes are a meal for a man, or about 5 cakes per day; and as a tree produces 1800 cakes, it gives food for one man for about a year. The labour to produce the raw sago, by breaking up and washing the pithy substance of the trunk, is about 10 days for one man, which labour pro

vides him with food for a year. This great cheapness of food leads to excessive laziness and misery. There is no stimulus to labour, and we find that the sagoeaters have generally the most miserable of huts and the scantiest of clothing. In the western islands of the Archipelago, where rice is the common food, and some regular labour and foresight are required to produce it, the populations are in general more wealthy, more industrious, and more intelligent, and there is much more likelihood of introducing among them the rudiments of knowledge and civilization. The more detailed information given in the paper of which this is an abstract was collected by myself during three voyages to various parts of the coasts and islands of New Guinea, in the years 1857, 1858, and 1860, mostly undertaken in native prahus, and with a view to the investigation of the natural history of the country.

On the Human Remains found in the course of the Excavations at Wroxeter. By THOMAS WRIGHT, F.S.A.

Mr. Wright stated that human remains had been found in the excavations at Uriconium under three different classes of circumstances:-First were the ancient Roman cemeteries outside the town, which had been partially explored last autumn, and which were now under a course of further exploration. In an ethnological point of view the discoveries here were of comparatively little use, because, as all the interments hitherto discovered were by cremation, no skulls or other perfect bones were found among the remains of the dead; but we derived from them the knowledge of the important fact that the inhabitants of Uriconium continued to burn their dead, and, in fact, seem to have had no other mode of burial, until the latest period of the existence of the city, that is, after the Roman government had been withdrawn from the island. Secondly, there were the remains of the inhabitants of the town, men, women, and children, who had been massacred by the savage barbarians when the city was taken and destroyed. He told several interesting anecdotes of the circumstances under which these remains had been found; and he stated that the skulls of these people presented no peculiarities which might not be found in any civilized town, such as Uriconium undoubtedly was. In the third place came the deformed skulls which had been the subject of so much discussion, a discussion which seemed not yet to have led to any satisfactory result. He described the circumstances and conditions under which these skulls had been found, and stated reasons for suspecting that the interments belonged to a considerably later date than had been supposed. His friend Dr. Henry Johnson, of Shrewsbury, in a very able paper recently read before the Royal Society, had undertaken to show that there are chemical elements in the earth in which these remains lay which might have so far affected the substance of the bone as to render it pliable and capable of becoming deformed after death. But, supposing this to be the case, we seem to want entirely the mechanical cause of deformation. The bodies were not buried sufficiently deep to have a weight of earth upon them; in fact, when buried, their graves must have been very shallow. No weight of buildings or of ruins had been laid upon them; but, on the contrary, from the quantity of small fibres of roots which are mixed with the earth, it appeared probable that during the middle ages the spot had been covered with low brushwood, which was usually the case with deserted ruins. He suggested that we can hardly understand why such a cause, affecting bones in this field, should not equally affect the skulls of the bodies interred in the adjacent churchyard; or why all the deformed skulls in this field should have the same deformity, or why the other bones of the body should not be similarly affected. The skulls of the Roman inhabitants, found with a great weight of ruins upon them, have in no instance yet observed undergone any similar deformity; and it must be added that the few skulls not deformed, found among these deformed skulls, were comparatively good types. It is intended to have a fresh and more careful exploration of the ground, in the hope that thereby some further light may be thrown on the subject.

STATISTICAL SCIENCE.

On the Progress of Instruction in Elementary Science among the Industrial Classes under the Science Minutes of the Department of Science and Art. By J. C. BUCKMASTER, B.A.

In

The author referred to the origin of mechanics' institutions, and the influence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The want of a better elementary education was the great obstacle to further improvement. The Royal Dublin Society, the old schools of design, and the industrial museums of Ireland and Scotland were intended to promote, in a variety of ways, a more general knowledge of those arts and sciences, which relate to our national industries. 1852 all these institutions were united under the Board of Trade into a Department of Science and Art. The old schools of design were superseded by drawingschools or schools of art, and 90 of these schools are now in active operation, teaching the elements of art to 92,000 persons, of whom the larger number belong to the working classes. In 1857 the Science and Art Department was placed in connexion with the Committee of Council on Education, and in 1859 a very comprehensive Minute was passed for aiding instruction in the elements of all the natural and applied sciences. There is annually held at South Kensington an examination for teachers of elementary science, which is free to all who give notice of the subjects on which they propose to be examined. The State avoids all the responsibility and expense of training teachers and providing them with employment. At the first examination, in November 1859, there were 57 candidates, of whom 49 were successful; in 1860 there were 89 candidates, of whom 75 were successful; in 1861 there were 103 candidates, of whom 97 were successful. By far the larger number of certificates have been taken by elementary teachers; but certificates have also been taken by a weaver, a printer, a wheelwright, clerks, and assistants in shops. Wherever a class is established, there must be a local committee of at least five persons. This committee superintends the examination of the pupils, which is conducted on the same principle as the Oxford middle-class examinations. For every pupil of the industrial classes who has received 40 lessons from the teacher, and who passes a satisfactory examination in the elements of the subject taught, the teacher receives a payment of £1, and for every first, second, and third grade Queen's prizeman he receives higher payments. The successful pupils receive rewards of books and medals. The department is merely an examining body; it does not pretend to interfere in any way with local organization and authority. All that is looked for is a successful result, and on this the teacher receives his payment. The examinations this year were held in May in 75 places; 60 of these were in connexion with mechanics' institutions. Last year only 563 pupils were examined; this year 1260, of whom 1038 were persons belonging to the industrial classes, and their ages varied from 9 to 53 years.

On the Cotton Famine, and the Substitutes for Cotton. By DAVID CHADWICK, F.S.S., Honorary Secretary of the Manchester Statistical Society.

The civil war in America has stopped our supplies of cotton from the Southern States, which during many years have supplied us with more than three-fourths of our total consumption. In 1860 we received the following supplies of cotton :United States, 2,581,000 bales; Brazil, 103,000 bales; Egypt, 109,000 bales; West Indies, 1000 bales; East Indies, 563,000 bales; total, 3,357,000 bales. The total amounts of cotton imported into Liverpool in the two periods of 8 months were respectively as follow:-To September 1861 (81 months), 2,508,672 bales; to September 1862 (8 months), 725,917 bales; deficiency, 1,782,755 bales. The average price of New Orleans cotton, in September 1861, was from 73d. to 10 d. per lb.; in September 1862, from 24d. to 30d. per lb. ; increase 16 d. to 20d. per ĺb., or more than 200 per cent. In ordinary times the price of yarns (40's) has been from 4d. to 5d. per lb. more than the price of the raw cotton, and a proportionate additional price for weaving. It is now (September 1862) no unusual thing for the spinner and manufacturer to take orders for the yarn and the cloth at the market price

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