The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-05 00:00:00

PARIS.

THE GRAND HOTEL,
Boulevard des Capueines, Place du Nouvelt Opera,
opposite the Hue de la Paix, and near the Theatres.
Has been o ened since t5B. It contains 70) bed-
rooms, prices from 4fr. to 25fr. ; 70 drawing-rooms, from Mr.
to 30fr. ; a magnificent salon, capable of dining more than
300 persons, and where there is a table d'hfite at six oVock.
Dinners ant b,eaktasts are served 'a la carte in the coffee-
rooms, as well as in the apartments. There is a reading-
oom with the best English and toreign papers and publica-
tions, a music-room and a drawing-room for the use of tra
yellers without any additional charge. There are also baths,
billiard-rooms, smoking divans. post-offi3e ; nibs, cArriag-es,
and omnibuses going to the railway statLn . The servants
spe..k all languages. This superb lintel, possessing all tha,
modern luxury and comfort can combine, and situ ited in the
most fashionable part of Paris, is recommended to the atten-
tion of travellers.

Independently of their Two Hotels, the Compagnle Immo-
biliere has est,bl 'shed an exteltdve Private Furnished House
on the Poulevard des Capucines, opposite the Rotunda of the
Grand Hotel, where Families can reside as in their own
private residences, and where they may rely upon finding
the utmost comfort.

TEETH AND PAINLESS DENTISTRY.-
The fear of pain and dread of ope-ation inherent to all
deter very many to whom ARTIFICIAL TEETH are of
vital importance from availing themselves of the services of
a dentist. In a practice founded in 1830, and now ex• ending,
over greater part of the kingdom, an experience unequalled
has been obtained, enabling us to offer even the most sensi-
tive sufferer a system of dentistry perfect in its absolute
freedom from pain, a specilitd i.ertaining only to our prac-
tice, and for which her Majesty has granted her royal letters
patent. This system embraces the non-interference with all
stumps, however decayed, the support ng instead of extrac-
tion of loose teeth until they become firm and useful in mas-
tication, and the utter absence of all and every operation, so
that the most nervous person can be supplied without fear of
pain or inconvenience. These teeth are cheaper, more dur-
able, natural, and comfortable than any yet produced.
Consultation free. Teeth from ss, Sets from 5 to 25 ga.,
warranted.

For the efficacy, utility, and success of this system, vide
" Lancet."

Messrs. LEWIN and SIMEON MOSELY and SONS,
30, Berners-street, Oxford-street, and 448, Strand,
Opposite Charing-cross Railway Station.
Daily attendance at 15, Whltefriargate, Hull ; 10, Norfolk-
street, Sheffield; 4, East-parade, Leeds; 14, St. Nicholas-
street, Scarbro' ; and 33, Coney-street, York.

Established 1830. No connection with any one of the same
name.

Anthropological Society.

At an ordinary meeting of this society on Tues-
day evening—Dr. J. Hunt in the chair—several
papers were read on the recently discovered human
remains and stone implements in the Orkneys and

in Caithness, with reference more particularly to the
recent work by Mr. Laing, on the pre-historic re-

mains in Caithness. Mr. Laing brought this sub-

ject before this society in a former session, and ex-
cited much interest by the statement of the discove-

ries he had made in excavating the kiats and shell

mounds in Caithness, which he has since more fully

developed in his work, in which he endeavours to
prove that the bones and implements found in
of a pre-histOriC race aegriiattr thnimiala

Caithness. The inhabitants of the district have felt

some indignation at this imputation on their ances-
tors, and many have been the objectors to his facts

and deductions.

Those adduced were numerous

and very difficult to be overcome, and Mr. Laing,
who was expected to have been present to meet

them, was prevexted by illness from attending.
The first paper was by Mr. John Cleghorn, of
Wick, entitled " A new reading of shell-mounds
and graves in Caithness," in which he entered into
an elaborate examination of Mr. Laing's book, for

the purpose of showing that its statements of facts

- -
are not correct and the deductions erroneous. Mr.

Cleghorn commenced his attack by bringing geolo-

gical evidence to bear against the assumed great
antiquity of the kists, for many of those kists are not
far above the level of the sea, which has been re-

ceding regularly for many yea's, so that it wouldbe
impossible for them to have been made on dry
ground more than 300 or 400 years ago. The
alleged stone implements found in the graves with
the skeletons, Mr. Cleghorn contended, were
nothing more than the rounded natural stones of
the district. He denied that the skulls were of a
more degraded character than most of those of indi-
viduals of the present day; and he was of opinion
that the skeletons found were those of mariners who
had been wrecked and their bodies buried near the
shore. With regard to the Birkle hills, which Mr.
Laing regards as affording evidence of great anti-
quity, Mr. Cleghorn observed that they are hillocks
of blown sand that have been consolidated by their
having been the rendezvous of the country folks on
occasions of wrecks, from their being nearest the
scenes of such disasters. They are on the same
raised beach with the graves and the harbour mound,
therefore cannot be older than they. "The Cyclo-
pean building of unhewn stones from the beech" (so
called by Mr. Laing) has been the place of shelter
for the night-watchers, and the " ovens," or " fire-
places," are the hearths where the crowds lighted
their fires to warm themselves during their dismal
nights. The relics found of nails of iron, charcoal,
stones split by heat, bones all charred, whorls, frag-
ments of iron, &c., were also just what such gather-
ings of men and women are expected to leave. He
conceded, in conclusion, that the view Mr. Laing has
taken of the shell-mounds and graves at Feiss are
at variance with the teachings of the geologist, the
archaeologist, and the anthropologist ; and that there
is a want of proof in his premises and of logic in his
deductions.

A paper by Mr. Petrie, of Orkney, was no less .
severe in opposing Mr. Laing's facts and inferences.
Mr. A. Joseph Anderson, in a paper " On human
remains at Feiss," also differed from Mr. Laing's
views, and came to the conclusion " that the burial
mound contains two sets of interments, one pre-
sumably older than the other, but concerning either
of which we have no reliable data for determining
their age, though the onemay with considerable pro-
bability be conjectured to be recent, and the other
not of very great antiquity. That the ‘shellmounds'
so called, being refuge heaps of borgs or Picts'
houses, cannot he referred to what has been called
the ' early stage of the stone period;' that they
present no general analogy with kjokken moddings
of Denmark, and in all probability belong to the
transition period when the pre-historic and the
earliest historic records of the North of Scot-
land merge into and throw light upon each other.
That the Birkle hills' are still undetermined as to
their character and contents, and that the moor-
land mound' is most likely the site of an early Cul-
dee settlement latterly used by the country people
as a sheiling."
Mr. R. J. SHEARER also contributed a paper on
the same subject, in which he criticised Mr. Laing's
book with much severity ; and, in noticing that
portion of it relating to the moorland mound, he
observed :—" I am really astonished that Mr.
Laing did not, before rushing into print, take the
advice of some person in this country, who might
have hindered him publishing an account of a
shelling' bbthy, not yet out of use above 40 or 50.
years, -as a moorland mound of pre-historic date.