mm. respectively. The breadth of the upper part of the nose, or the interocular distance as determined by a few measurements, is greater among the Ingoush (35 mm.) than among the Ossetians (33-3 mm.).

The Eyes.-The Ingoush have for the most part (87 per cent.) brown eyes of a darker or lighter shade; but blue or grey eyes also occur, though far less frequently. It has been suggested that their olfactory powers are very acute; and this may be repeated, with stronger emphasis, with regard to the faculty of vision. This is very remarkably powerful, as it is among the Kurds and other pastoral peoples, and, according to the usual measurements, is estimated at double that of average eyesight. Their look is furtive, restless and anxious, anything rather than open it was always very difficult to get them, even by payments, to submit to examination.

Stature. The Ingoush belong to one of the tallest tribes in the world. The mean height obtained from the measurements of fifty-six individuals, taken partly from prison and hospital, and partly at random, was found to be 1728 mm. or 5 feet 7:39 inches. The two extreme measurements were 1640 mm. and 1840 mm. All their members are developed proportionately; but they are narrow-chested, the girth at the chest being generally somewhat less than half the stature (855 mm. instead of 864 mm.). The Ossetians are shorter, but have a broader chest.

The Hair.-The Ingoush have dark hair. The chest is abundantly covered with hair, and so, to a somewhat less degree, is the whole body; and this hairiness constitutes in their case, as in that of the Chaldaeans or Aïssorians or Abbysians and the Tats of Persia, a very characteristic anthropological feature. The disposition of the hairs on the chest differs from that observed in the Russians: they do not grow in the form of a cross on the middle of the chest, as in the case of the latter, but are fairly evenly distributed over its whole surface, and are seldom massed very closely. The remarkable hairiness of the Ingoush, common to Aïssorians and Tats, has led some to the conclusion, which awaits full justification, that they are genetically related to these two peoples. The Aïssorians are ultra-brachycephalic, the Tats are mostly dolichocephalic, and the Ingoush, as we have seen, show a ratio ranging from 1:073, or true dolichocephalic, to 1:092, or ultra-brachycephalic.

In every respect the Ingoush prove to be, anthropologically, a group of men inhabiting the Caucasus, distinct from their neighbours, the Ossetians, Tchetchen, Lesghin, Kumykh, Circassian and Kabardin, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew and others. All these peoples differ essentially from them in some particulars: the Ossetians are of a lighter colour in hair and eyes, shorter face, less hairiness and less pronounced brachycephaly. The Tchetchens have a broader face and head, greater skeletal development, larger chest, higher cephalic index (1084), and less sensibility and more meagre intellectual endowment. The Lesghin also have a broader head, and have less hair, of a lighter shade. The Kumykh are smaller, and have larger cheekbones and larger chest; the Circassians and Kabardin are less brachycephalic and are less hairy; the Armenians, Georgians, and Hebrews have, among other distinctions, a narrower head, shorter stature, and a far greater proportionate number of protuberant noses.

If we should be asked what are the characteristic anthropological features of a predatory tribe, such as the Ingoush, it would be somewhat difficult to give an adequate reply. We might of course indicate those qualities which are common to all peoples of a similar disposition and manner of life, but we should find very few such points to enumerate. And there is little doubt that we should consider all the features of each tribe together, rather than point out such and such particular traits as specially associated with, or indicative of, the habits and temperament which distinguish the people in question. We do not doubt that there is a connection between mental disposition and physical structure, and that the investigation of the Ingoush, which we hope may be carried further, must be of the highest value to the student of criminal anthropology.

Let us now turn to certain recent anthropological inquiries in Switzerland, in which not the living, but the dead have been studied by young anthropologists, who have excavated certain caves with a view to the recovery of long-buried skulls. Only a small beginning has been made in this line of research the material which has as yet been obtained is very small in amount; and our ignorance of the earlier generations of man is great. But though we are far from sharing the very optimistic views of those young enthusiasts who, having obtained a few skulls, consider themselves able already to trace the origin of the present inhabitants of the Swiss mountains, we must certainly acknowledge the value of further knowledge of what kinds of heads were on the shoulders of these ancient peoples whose remains were buried, in the immemorial past, in the caves of the Schweizersbild and of the Taigen, and in many others which still await excavation.

The Genevan Geographical Society has lately received two or three communications from Messrs. E. Pittard and Schenk, relating to their investigations in Valais and Savoy, and published in Globus, vols. xxxviii. and xxxix.; we shall make a short reference to these researches, which their promoters propose to continue.

In 1877 and following years Mr. Abel Novelaigne published, in the Revue d'Anthropologie, his studies on the Savoyard skull. These studies have been continued since by Dr. Jules Carret, and the young Swiss anthropologist, already mentioned, Dr. Eugene Pittard. Dr. Carret has published his results in the Mémoires de la Société Savoisienne d'histoire et d'archéologie (1882), and those of Dr. Pittard have appeared, as stated above, in the last volume of Globus.

We leave aside Dr. Pittard's views with regard to the primitive population of Savoy, as somewhat far-fetched and not sufficiently warranted by facts, and pass directly to his anthropological material, which consisted of 165 skulls, collected from different parts of the country. About 83 per cent. of these skulls have proved to be brachycephalic, 20 per cent. dolichocephalic, and 7 per. cent. mesocephalic. The extreme brachycephaly gives the ratio between longitudinal and transverse dimensions as 1087. These brachycephalic skulls, belonging, as it would seem, to the majority of the ancient inhabitants of Savoy, are identical with those found in Valais, whence has arisen the somewhat hasty con

clusion that they belong to the same tribe of men. Both are supposed to have been of Celtic race. This skull is globular in form, the parietal bones are rounded, the sphenoid bones are only slightly developed, and the zygomatic arch is scarcely apparent. The frontal bones are high and large, the temporal bones diverging and salient, the superciliary ridge is strongly marked, the nasal apertures are moderate in size and the orbits are large. The ethmoid bones are salient; the space between the eyebrows (glabelle) little accentuated. The ratio of the length to the breadth of the face is as 1052, which brings most of these skulls under the designation leptoprotopus or long-faced. The nose is supposed to have been long and narrow.

No material, worthy of attention, has been secured for the investigation of the stature, colour of hair, and other particulars.

The anthropological inquiries in Valais and Vaatland, conducted by Messrs. Bedot, Scholl, Schenk, and Pittard, were based on a number of skulls found in certain ancient charnel-houses. M. Bedot also examined, for purposes of comparison, over a thousand young men recruited for the army. This simultaneous study of the past and the present generations of men has revealed the fact that in former times the population in Valais, as in Savoy, was mostly brachycephalic, and characterised by a high cephalic index (from 82 to 86), whereas at the present day this brachycephaly has decreased, the mean cephalic index obtained from the measurement of the recruits being from 80 to 83; and there are further to be found about 20 per cent. of dolichocephalic and sub-dolichocephalic people inhabiting the valley of the Rhone. The modern population therefore seems to be somewhat distinct from the ancient. Its mean stature, estimated from the measurement of twelve hundred recruits is 1635 mm., and therefore lower than the stature of the shortest of the Ingoush, which was 1640 mm.

It would be very interesting to carry out a full comparison between the inhabitants of these two high mountain regions, the Caucasus and the Alps. The influence of the environment does not greatly differ in the two cases, but the anthropological distinctions, deriving from different racial origins, are many and very marked. The present writer, who hast lived for long periods both in the Caucasus and the Alps, has been struck chiefly by the more pronounced features, and the greatly more acute senses of several Caucasian tribes, than can be observed among the present Alpine population; and would express his hope that anthropologists in both countries will pursue a comparative study, in order that we may obtain a fuller knowledge of the special characteristics of highland peoples; and that, by the systematic investigation both of the dead and the living, they will throw further light upon the causes of the evolution or the degeneration of human structure.

ITINERARIES IN PORTUGUESE CONGO.1

By Rev. THOMAS LEWIS, Baptist Missionary Society.

It is remarkable that a country like that of the ancient kingdom of Kongo, discovered by Europeans in the fifteenth century, should be so little known at the beginning of the twentieth, and that its development should have been so sadly neglected to the present day. The rush of civilisation into Central Africa has naturally been by means of its mighty waterways, and hitherto our knowledge of the interior has been to a great extent confined to comparatively narrow strips on the banks of its rivers and the shores of its lakes. The greater facilities for travelling seem to keep Europeans in the valleys, and this fact may account for the lack of enterprise-commercial and otherwise-on the part of many, in opening up districts where overland transport is a tedious undertaking and a great expense. Perhaps also the government, into whose hands the development of the south-western portion of the Congo has been intrusted, is not so active and energetic as we might wish. At any rate, in years gone by the Portuguese Government were more concerned in the development of their plantations in the West African islands than in the welfare of their Congo territories; and for generations they looked upon the mainland as a rich field to supply West Indian markets with slaves and their coffee plantations with "hands."

Thus, the ancient kingdom of Kongo has been pulled to pieces, and drained out of its best blood and life, because those in power forgot that the only way to develop the country was to develop the character of its people. Until recently the only lucrative business in the country --in which blacks and whites were equally active-was the traffic in human flesh; and even to-day the chief concern of the Kongos is how best to sell one another.

Fortunately the Portuguese Government of the present day shows signs of a desire to open up the country to legitimate trade, and to take its place in the march of civilisation. In 1887 an official Resident was appointed and stationed at S. Salvador. In 1896 a military and fiscal station was established at Makela, not far from the boundary of the Congo State, and on the outskirts of the Zombo country; while in the year 1899 another poste was established on the Kwangu river. We take these as sign sof good intentions, and hope for better things in the future.

It is important to remember that on the Congo, the immediate banks are populated by riverine tribes, who generally have little in common with the inland natives, and they act as middlemen between them and the white traders.

Noqui. A traveller sailing up the Congo will find very few native towns on his journey. On the Portuguese side he will pass S. Antonio at the mouth, where there is a government-house and a Roman Catholic mission; then the flourishing trading stations of Kassanga, Mossuca, and Noqui, which is the principal port on the Portuguese side, and about ninety miles from the coast. Noqui has the name of being, with

1 A paper read before the Geographical Section of the British Association Meeting in Glasgow.

Matadi (a few miles higher), the most unhealthy and deadly spot on the Congo, and for excessive heat and general discomfort it cannot easily be surpassed; and the death-rate among Europeans is very high. Commercially and politically, it cannot be dispensed with, as it is the receiving depôt for all places as far as the Kwangu river, a distance of about 300 miles. Most of the trading houses have their representatives here.

Noqui Hill.-Happy, however, is the man bound for the interior whose carriers are ready to take him out of this sweltering and swampy township: and although the famous "Noqui hill," with its rough boulders of rock and steep winding path, tests the soundness of one's respiratory organs, when the traveller looks down from the top, and finds Noqui 900 feet below him, he begins to feel more comfortable, and is glad of a cooler atmosphere to breathe in. When he has cast a final glance on the waters of the Congo, he begins to look around him for a friendly native town where he may spend the night: it is then that he wonders where the people are, for he can see nothing but bare rocks and tall, coarse grass, with here and there a few clumps of palms and small patches of green bushes in the well-watered ravines. He finally decides to pitch his tent by the first stream of water and camp for the night. Thus he gets on for two or three days through an exceedingly monotonous country, which is only relieved by an occasional stream or river. The roads are narrow tracks, and, except in the valleys, where one complains of the tall elephant grass, they are covered with loose quartz stones, which are very trying.

Mpozo River.-About the third day he crosses the Mpozo river, which empties itself into the Congo above Matadi, but at this point in the dry season its water only reaches to a little above the knee. Then come the Luzu and Lunda, with other lesser streams all joining the Mpozo. On the fourth day it is refreshing to come across some native towns, and to be able to buy fresh food for himself and carriers. As he nears S. Salvador, the country is more hilly, and he can see more ground under cultivation, a sure proof of the existence of more people; and when he consults his aneroid he finds that he has been gradually ascending, until he is now at S. Salvador, 1840 feet above the level of the sea.

S. Salvador.-Some two or three hundred years ago this ancient capital of the kingdom of Kongo must have been a large township. Cavazzi, Pigafetta, and others have given us their account of this great city in the wilds of Africa, where kings and their courts appear in great splendour, where churches were numerous, and where all the natives had embraced the Christian faith. Many of the statements of these eminent men must be taken with caution, but the fact remains that the ruins of several churches have been discovered, and the main arch of what is called "the cathedral" still stands in good state of preservation. The ruins of the city walls we have seen, but these are fast disappearing, for the stones are being dug up and used to erect government and other modern buildings. The arch of the ruined cathedral is the only remaining monument of a great and glorious past.

At present the whole population barely amounts to 1500, and the king has become little more than an ordinary chief-a tool in the hands of the government. There are two missions, one Roman Catholic and