Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-30
BY THOMAS r.. HENRY.

| That gigantic extinct elephant, the
| maStodon, possibly was alive in North
| America when Columbus landed, Prof.
w. B. Scott of Princeton University
| told the National Academy of Sciences,
which ended its scientific meetings here
yesterday.
The creature generally is supposed to
have been extinct for nearly $4,000
years. The finding of human skull in
Florida which had been stepped on
by a mastodon has been adduced as
evidence of the great antiquity of man
on this continent and has precipitated
one of the most lively recent scientific
controversies. But both Prof. Scott and
Prof. Frank Leverett of the University
of Michigan insisted that it indicated,
not the antiquity of man, but the mod
ernity of the mastodon.
There has just been found near Quito,
Ecuador, Prof Scott said, the skeleton
of mastodon which evidently had been
slain with man-made weapons. 1t was
of fires lit to roast 1t. In the same for
nation were found pottery fragments
of Maya workmanship which can be
dated from the fourth century AID.
This means, Prof. Scott said, that the
animal was killed not more than 1900
years ago and probably much later.
The discovery, he said, had not
hitherto been announced in the United
States. Citing other cases, he insisted
that the animals of the Pleistoscene
age, the geological era just preceding
the present, did not die off all at once
but continued in some places well into
historic times.
Teaches Music by Pictures.
A new method of teaching music
which makes use of both the eye and
I-,yI lx4f ~ z
SeaShore of the University of Iowa.
Musical technique, either vocal or in
strumental, can be resolved into four
skills, he said. These are tone, in
tenSity, timbre and rhythm.
These skills are taught one at time.
Visual images of the students actual
singing or playing of each note are pro-
duced automatically before him as he
sits before microphone. Thus he con-
tinues until the skill he is practicing Is
shown by the pictures" to approach
Prof. Seashore said, that once skill
has been mastered the student can
forget all about it. It automatically
carries over into the playing or singing
Of the piece as whole.
This will save a great deal of money
spent for vocal or piano lessons, greatly
improve technique and make musical
expression possible 10 many VINO THINK
they have no talent in this direction,
he said. Pictures also can be secured
of the voices of great artists, and the
amateur singer can practice with these
before him.
Prof Seashore also announced the
perfection Of the 'piano camera" which
records exactly the time, duration and
relative force of each note struck by
the player, so that these can be COM
pared with the work of other players.
Lost Tribe Refuge Found.
A hitherto unknown last refuge of lost
tribes and languages exists in the high
mountains and deep valleys Of North
western California, said DR.. G. Hart
Merriam. Within this limited area, he
said, there are the last survivors of "a
Indian tribes and Of Is different lin
guistic stocks. In some cases, he pointed
out, there will be only one person left
with vague memories Of an otherwise
completely lost language. A linguistic
stock he described as having no SIM
ilarity to any other languages and not
merely different language based, for
the most part, on the same roots, as in
the case with all the Indo- European
tongues.
within radius of 40 miles from the
Hoopa Valley" he said, there were, in