Abstract
L'Anthropologie, tome v. No. 1, January–February.—M. Émile Cartailhac contributes certain new facts with regard to the prehistoric history of the Pyrenees; in the present number he describes some quaitzites of the St. Acbeul type that have been recently found in the cave of Herm (Ariège). The examination of the animal remains was confided to M. Marcellin Boule who communicates a short note on the remains of the Glutton (Gulo luscus) and the Cave Lion (Felis spelæa) which were found there in association with the worked flints. The mandible of Felis spelæa found in the cave of Herm presents characters intermediate between the lion and the tiger, and M. Boule would prefer to look upon this great cave cat as merely a polymorphous race of the modern lion; he suggests that it should be called Felis leo, race spelæa.—M. Salomon Reinach treats of sculpture in Europe prior to Greco-Roman influence; and M. G. Capus describes the ethnical migrations in Central Asia from a geographical point of view. From the Himalaya,southwards, to the Altai, northwards, the great mountain ranges of Central Asia form a series of practically parallel ridges running from east to west; but from the 35th to the 45th parallels of latitude there is also a mountainous barrier extending from north to south, and separating the western plains from the valleys and plateaus of the east. This barrier has played an important part in determining the ciurse of the migration of nations and the distribution of the two great Asiatic races. It is formed more particularly by the Pamir plateau, extending from the valley of the upper Indus as far as the Thian-Shan, to the north of the Trans-Alai range. The whole of the surrounding region is thus divided into three great sections—the Indo-Afghan, the Turanian (including Kashgar), and the Tibetan, and each of these three districts is characterised by certain physical features which distinguish it from the others. The Turanian slopes, with their grassy steppes and their arid deserts, possess a climate, a fauna, and a flora of great uniformity; the absence of great forests, the predominance of pasturage over arable land, the rarity of summer rains, and the great variations of temperature, clearly distinguish this section from the other two. On the high Tibetan plateaus which extend from the Kuen-lun to the Himalayas, the climatic conditions caused by the great altitude are, in general, so unfavourable to human life that they serve by themselves sufficiently to characterise this region. The plateaus and valleys of Afghanistan and the northern plains of India enjoy, on the other hand, a soil less unequal in richness, a climate less extreme, and a vegetation more abundant, thanks to the moisture that they receive from the south-west monsoons. The cultivation of the soil is more extensive, and is, at the same time, carried on with greater energy, so that arable land is less localised, and is in greater proportion to pasturage. But the aptitude of the soil to support nomadic cattle-breeders or sedentary agriculturists is an efficient factor in determining the routes chosen by the one and the other in their movements of migration or exodus; and so we find that the sedentary Aryan who has trusted to agricultural pursuits from time immemorial has moved from the, west to the south-east and the east; while the Turco-Mongol, who has devoted himself to the raising of cattle and nomadism, has chosen the Turanian route from the east to the north-west and west.—M. R. Verneau describes a new human cranium from a lacustrine city. This is one of two crania found at Concise, by Dr. Gilbert, with some 1700 objects of bronze and stone, and is confidently attributed to the bronze age; it is almost perfect with the exception of the lower jaw, and is remarkable for its extreme brachycephaly (91˙46).
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Scientific Serials. Nature 49, 593–594 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/049593a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/049593a0