Sugar planter. [volume] (West Baton Rouge [i.e. Port Allen, West Baton Rouge Parish, La.]) 1856-1925, 1866-10-20
RECENT INVESTIGATIONS IN swift.
ZERLAND.

dwellings OF Switzerland and Other part'
of Europep was announced some day
since. DIR. Lees English translation o.
this swork contains, in addition to DR.
kell4's reports to the Antiquarian Socie,
~ Of Zurich. some interesting EXTRACTS
from the writings Of other Swiss natural
ists-Professor Heer among them-aud
the whole series of observation gives
some valuable Information on the ques-
ton Of the antiquity of man.
II 10 commended that the lake dweIlers
had the same cereals as the Egyptians, and
also that they were clothed in the same
manner, for 10 Egypt fax took the place
among the plants used for spinning and
weaving. All the mummies are wrapped
in linen cloth, and ia the time of Herodo-
tins the priests could wear only linen
garments. One Of the plaques sent by
Jehovah upon Egypt vas the destruction
of their crops Of fax aud barley by thun-
der and hail. Exodus tx, BIZ The cul-
tivation Of fax and the art of weaving the
thread may frequently be seen on the
Egyptian rural paintings. while hemp
was unknown as a plant for making
thread, and it is also entirely unknown 10
The remains of the lake dwellings,
These Swiss observers arrive at the
conclusion that the antiquity Of these
dwellings, is probably from 1000 to 1000
years B.. G.
l3 /" La any case, the remains of plants
have q very high antiquity, and they
throw some light upon the solution Of the
question whether the species Of plants
have undergone any change in historic
time. With respect to the wild plants,
the question must be answered in the
negative. The most careful investigation
of them shows a surprising agreement
with the recent species, aud even small
varieties of form have been retained, al
we see ia the water-lilIy, Of the fir, the
sioe, the bird-cherry and the hazel nut
Prof Unger has come to the same conclu-
sion by investigating the Egyptian plants.
But the case is different with the ~cuItiva-
ted plants, although some kinds-as the
dense compact wheat (Binkelweizen) and
the close six-rowed barley-have under
gone no perceptible change, yet it must
be confessed that most Of them agree
with no recent forms sufficiently to allow
OF their being cIassed together. The small
Celtic beans, the peas, the small lake
dwelling barley, the Egyptian and the
small lake.dwelling wheat, and the two
rowed wheat, Or emner, form peculiar
and apparently extinct races they are
distinguished for the most part from the
modern cultivated kind by smaller seeds.
Man bas therefore, in course Of time, pro-
duced sorts which give a more abundant
yield, and these have gradually suppIant-
cd the old varieties
The conclusion drawn from the animal
remains of these dwellings, are as follows
This seems to be the first place where
we can no longer strive against the evil
deDce Of a European population, who
USED not only the urus and the bison, but
also the mammoth aid the rllinoceros, and
who left the remains of their feast not
only to be gnawed by the wolf aud the
fox, but also By the tiger and the hyena.
Il Is, in truth, an old Psychological expe
that we always consider that to be
really primitive which we see the farthest
from us, and this in spite of nu- {
merons admouitions which are continual
Z PS oes TO pIattoos lying IGF-
Their and still further behind. The inyes.
of the commencement of human =
will hardly have the pr~eroeative {
Of being liberated from the gradual ad- I
vance which palentology has followed up. 8
The discovery at Aurignac places the age
of our lake dwellings, at a comparative
ate period, although almost immediately
under our peat beds, with their rich treas. /
arss, similar antiquities are found nav D
'nil Older remains are met with, only a I
title ~deeper-in the slatey brown coal of a
.urnier, perhaps 40 feet under the Il
bed of the lake Of Planikon than q
hose Of Aurignac, which have been ii
by hyenas after having been des. J
boiled of their ma.row-like the bones of Il
Rooenhausen--by human hands. This Y
ass fact would also point out to us as G
ne place where we have to look for the
'emains of the ancestors of the lake set J
.lers-namely, under the glacier NOR
it is manifest that the people
vho inhabited the grotto of Aurignac
older than the extension of the pIa- W
'iers, and consequently, also, witnesses q
y this mighty phenomenon. But this d.
act, on the other hand, takes from us ca
very hope of still fuding traces of hu- al
nan ex'stance on places over which. the er