than we had ever felt it in the region of sugar-canes and bananas. About here, some of the trachytic porphyry which forms the substance of the hills had happened to have cooled, under suitable conditions, from the molten state into a sort of slag or volcanic glass, which is the obsidian in question; and, in places, this vitreous lava-from one layer having flowed over another which was already cool-was regularly stratified.

"The mines were mere wells, not very deep; with horizontal workings into the obsidian, where it was very good and in thick layers. Round about were heaps of fragments, hundreds of tons of them; and it was clear, from the shape of these, that some of the manufacturing was done on the spot. There had been great numbers of pits worked; and it was from these "minillas," little mines, as they are called, that we first got an idea how important an element this obsidian was in the old Aztec civilization. In excursions made since, we travelled over whole districts in the plains, where fragments of these arrows and knives were to be found, literally at every step, mixed with morsels of pottery, and here and there a little clay idol. Among the heaps of fragments were many that had become weathered on the upper side, and had a remarkable lustre, like silver. Obsidian is called bizcli by the Indians, and the silvery sort is known as bizcli platera. They often find bits of it in the fields; and go with great secrecy and mystery to Mr. Bell, or some other authority in mining matters, and confide to him their discovery of a silver mine. They go away angry and unconvinced when told what their silver really is; and generally come to the conclusion that he is deceiving them, with a view of throwing them off the scent, that he may find the place himself, and cheat them of their share of the profits-just what their own miserable morbid cunning would lead them to do under such circumstances.

"The family-likeness that exists among the stone tools and weapons found in so many parts of the world is very remarkable. The flint-arrows of North America, such as Mr. Longfellow's arrow-maker used to work at in the land of the Dacotahs, and which, in the wild northern states of Mexico, the Apaches and Comanches use to this day, might be easily mistaken for the weapons of our British ancestors, dug up on the banks of the Thames. It is true that the finish of the Mexican obsidian implements far exceeds that of the chipped flint and agate weapons of Scandinavia, and still more those of England, Switzerland, and Italy, where they are dug up in such quantities, in deposits of alluvial soil, and in bone-caves in the limestone rocks. But this higher finish we

may attribute partly to the superiority of the material; for the Mexicans also used flint to some extent, and their flint weapons are as hard to distinguish by inspection as those from other parts of the world. We may reasonably suppose, moreover, that the skill of the Mexican artificer increased when he found a better material than flint to work upon. Be this as it may, an inspection of any good collection of such articles shows the much higher finish of the obsidian implements than of those of flint, agate, and rock-crystal. They say there is an ingenious artist who makes flint arrow-heads and stone axes for the benefit of English antiquarians, and earns good profits by it. I should like to give him an order for ribbed obsidian razors and spear-heads; I don't think he would make much of them.

Mexican arrow-heads of obsidian,

"The wonderful similarity of character among the stone weapons found in

different parts of the world has often been used by ethnologists as a means of supporting the theory that this and other arts were carried over the world by tribes migrating from one common centre of creation of the human species.

Aztec knife of chalcedony, mounted on a wooden handle, which is shaped like a human figure, with its face appearing through an eagle-head mask, and has been inlaid wirh mosaic work of malachite, shell, and turquoise. Length 12 inches.

The argument has not much weight, and a larger view of the subject quite supersedes it.

"We may put the question in this way. In Asia and in Europe the use of stone tools and weapons has always characterized a very low state of civilization; and such implements are only found among savage tribes living by the chase, or just beginning to cultivate the ground, and to emerge from the condition of mere barbarians. Now, if the Mexicans got their civilization from Europe, it must have been from some people unacquainted with the use of iron, if not of bronze. Iron abounds in Mexico, not only in the state of ore, but occurring nearly pure in aerolites of great size, as at Cholula, and at Zacatecas, not far from the great ruins there; so that the only reason for their not using it must have been ignorance of its qualities.

"The Arabian Nights' story of the mountain which consisted of a single loadstone finds its literal fulfilment in Mexico. Not far from Huetamo, on the road towards the Pacific, there is a conical hill composed entirely of magnetic iron-ore. The blacksmiths in the neighbourhood, with no other apparatus than their common forges, make it directly into wrought iron, which they use for all ordinary purposes.

"Now, in supposing civilization to be transmitted from one country to another, we must measure it by the height of its lowest point, as we measure the strength of a chain by the strength of the weakest link. The only civilization that the Mexicans can have received from the Old World must have been from some people whose cutting implements were of sharp stone, consequently, as we must conclude by analogy, some very barbarous and ignorant tribe.

"From this point we must admit that the inhabitants of Mexico raised themselves, independently, to the extraordinary degree of culture which distinguished them when Europeans first became aware of their existence. The curious distribution of their knowledge shows plainly that they found it for themselves, and did not receive it by transmission. We find a wonderful acquaintance with astronomy, even to such details as the real cause of eclipses, and the length of the year given by intercalations of surprising accuracy; and, at the same time, no knowledge whatever of the art of writing alphabetically, for their hieroglyphics are nothing but suggestive pictures. They had carried the art of gardening to a high degree of perfection; but, though there were two kinds of ox, and the buffalo at no great distance from them in the countries they had already passed through in their migration from the north, they had no idea of the employment of beasts of burden, nor of the use of milk.

They were a great trading people, and had money of several kinds in general use, but the art of weighing was utterly unknown to them; while, on the other hand, the Peruvians habitually used scales and weights, but had no idea of the use of money.

"To return to the stone knives. The Mexicans may very well have invented the art themselves, as they did so many others; or they may have received it from the Old World. The things themselves prove nothing either way.

"The real proof of their having, at some early period, communicated with inhabitants of Europe or Asia rests upon the traditions current among them, which are recorded by the early historians, and confirmed the Aztec picturewritings; and upon several extraordinary coincidences in the signs used by them in reckoning astronomical cycles. Further on I shall allude to these traditions.

"On the whole, the most probable view of the origin of the Mexican tribes seems to be the one ordinarily held, that they really came from the Old World, bringing with them several legends, evidently the same as the histories recorded in the book of Genesis. This must have been, however, at a time when they were quite a barbarous, nomadic tribe; and we must regard their civilization as of independent and far later growth.

"We rode back through the woods to Guajalote, where the Mexican cook had made us a feast after the manner of the country, and from her experience of foreigners had learnt to temper the chilé to our susceptible throats. Decidedly the Mexicans are not without ideas in the matter of cookery. We stayed talking with the hospitable Don Alejandro and his sister till it was all but dark, and then rode back to the Real, admiring the fire-flies that were darting about by thousands, and listening to our companion's stories, which turned on robberies and murders as stories are apt to do in wild places after dark. But, save an escape from being robbed some twenty years back, and the history of an Indian who was murdered just here by some of his own people, for a few shillings he was taking home, our friend had not much reason to give for the two huge horse-pistols he carried, ready for action. His story of the death of a German engineer in these parts is worth recording here. He was riding home one dark night with a companion; and, trusting to his knowledge of the country, tried a short cut through the woods, among the old open mines near the Regla road. They had quite passed all the dangerous places, he thought, so he gave his horse the spur, and plunged sheer down a shaft, hundreds of feet deep. His friend pulled up in time, and got home safely."

From this interesting subject we pass on to a discourse on numerals and counting; then to the siege and capitulation of Puebla; to miracles, rival virgins, Indian canoes, water-snakes, salt and salt-pans, fried flies'-eggs, Aztec pictures, the mammoth bones in the Mexican museum, bull-lazoing and cockfighting, gambling and fortunate miners, travelling companions and Mexicans who live by their wits, artificial lightning, the future destinies of Mexico, cum multis aliis, which are, as the puffing advertisers say, too numerous to mention." With them we do not meddle; luckily for us, our province is confined to the geological: we do not say all we could say about that; but if we were tempted out of our course, eight pages would not suffice for this review.

We linger only to add a valuable note which Mr. Tylor gives us in an appendix, on the manufacture of obsidian knives.

"Some of the old Spanish writers on Mexico give a tolerably full account of the manner in which the obsidian knives, &c., were made by the Aztecs. It will be seen that it only modifles in one particular the theory we had formed by mere inspection as to the way in which these objects were made, which is given at p. 97; that is, they were cracked off by pressure, and not, as we conjectured, by a blow of some hard substance.

Torquemada (Monarquia Indiana, Seville, 1616), says (free translation):

“They had, and still have, workmen who make knives of a certain black stone or flint,

which it is a most wonderful and admirable thing to see them n.ake out of the stone; and the ingenuity which invented this art is much to be praised. They are made and got out of the stone (if one can explain it) in this manner. One of these Indian workmen sits down upon the ground, and takes a piece of this black stone, which is like jet, and hard as flint, and is a stone which might be called precious, more beautiful and brilliant than alabaster or jasper, so much so that of it are made tablets and mirrors. The piece they take is about eight inches long or rather more, and as thick as one's leg or rather less, and cylindrical; they have a stick as large as the shaft of a lance, and three cubits or rather more in length; and at the end of it they fasten firmly another piece of wood, eight inches long, to give more weight to this part; then, pressing their naked feet together, they hold the stone as with a pair of pincers or the vice of a carpenter's bench. They take the stick, which is cut off smooth at the end, with both hands, and set it well home against the edge of the front of the stone (y ponenlo avesar con el canto de la frente de la piedra) which also is cut smooth in that part; and then they press it against their breast, and with the force of the pressure there flies off a knife, with its point, and edge on each side, as neatly as if one were to make them of a turnip with a sharp knife, or of iron in the fire. Then they sharpen it on a stone, using a hone to give it a very fine edge; and in a very short time these workmen will make more than twenty knives in the aforesaid manner. They come out of the same shape as our barbers' lancets, except that they have a rib up the middle, and have a slight graceful curve towards the point. They will cut and shave the hair the first time they are used, at the first cut nearly as well as a steel razor, but they lose their edge at the second cut; and so, to finish shaving one's beard or hair, one after another has to be used; though indeed they are cheap, and spoiling them is of no consequence. Many Spaniards, both regular and secular clergy, have been shaved with them, especially at the beginning of the colonization of these realms, when there was no such abundance as now of the necessary instruments, and people who gain their livelihood by practising this occupation. But I conclude by saying that it is an admira ble thing to see them made, and no small argument for the capacity of the men who found out such an invention." "

Now we take our leave of "Anahuac;" we have read it from beginning to end and have been delighted with it. Our readers will be the same if they buy it and read it right through as we have done.

We have to thank Mr. Tylor for the use of some of the excellent woodcuts with which his book is copiously illustrated.

Primeval Man. By the Rev. Dr. ANDERSON, F.G.S. Edinburgn:

Paton and Ritchie, 1861.

This small Pamphlet, a report and address to the Graduates' Association at St. Andrew's, has been sent to us by its author, the Rev. Dr. Anderson of Dura Den, who takes views on the subject of flint-implements and their bearings on the question of the great antiquity of man like those expressed by M. Robert in his late correspondence with M. Boucher de Perthes, namely, that there had been much commingling by diluvial or torrential action of the bones and debris embedded in the more ancient pleistocene beds, with more recent remains and more modern sediments and deposits.

Geological changes are daily falling within our own observations, and scarcely a year elapses without something occurring worthy to be noticed. The Murrayshire floods of 1829; then in the spring of 1859, at the breaking up of the ice in the river Spey and its tributaries, and the vast accumulation of sand and gravel near the junction of the Eden with the Cerees Burn, are quoted by Dr. Anderson who deduces from these and similar modern instances that the mere position of the beds of gravel and silt in which the flint weapons are found does not necessarialy determine their time, or even relative ages one with another. Many of them may not be in their original places, but have been shifted and carried to other localities, either suddenly by river-flooding, or slowly and gradually by the eroding action of rains and runlets of streams,

Although these opinions are not in strict accordance with our own, we are always ready to concede a portion of our pages in stating the opposing views of others, whenever those views have auy merit.

We are sorry, however, that Dr. Anderson should have misinterpreted and mis-stated some of our thoughts expressed in a former volume of "The GEOLOGIST," but as we feel quite sure this was not intentional on his part, we refrain from further comment on that subject.

THE GEOLOGIST.

JULY, 1861.

ON METALLIFEROUS SADDLES.

BY DR. R. N. RUBIDGE, OF PORT ELIZABETH, SOUTH AFRICA.

In the number of your journal for October, 1860, I read with great interest a paper by Dr. Watson "On the Metalliferous Saddles of Derbyshire and Staffordshire." The Doctor says that, though well known to the miners, he believes these saddles have not hitherto been described by any geologist. If he will refer to the Journal of the Geol. Soc., 1857, p. 233, he will find a paper "On the Mines of Namaqualand," in which I think he will recognise a description of these deposits under the name of "metallic axes." With such modifications as the difference in the strata and their metallic contents requires, his description would nearly apply to what I said.

The strata in which my axes occur are gneiss and gneiss-granite with occasional beds of magnesian and micaceous rock at Springbok Vontein and Concordia, and micaceous and calcareous rock, with gneiss at Kodas. The saddles (a better name than mine) in all the productive mines were folds in the strata, with fissures of various sizes and directions intersecting them. The one was in some cases more abundant in the planes corresponding to the original bedding of the rock: this was strikingly the case at Concordia, where the

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