Yet under the name of Samaritans, they were probably in race as much Jews as the people of Judea itself.

In due time Palestine was conquered by the Persians, and the Assyrians expelled. The Greeks conquered it from the Persians, the Romans from the Greeks, the Arabs from the Romans, and the Turks from the Arabs. We have here no fewer than six distinct races, or at all events nationalities, each of them for ages in possession of the parent country of the Hebrew race, embracing in all a period of five-and-twenty centuries, during which a commixture of their blood to more or less extent with that of the Jews was inevitable.

As to the Jews scattered over the wide world after the Roman conquest, it is clear that they are everywhere a mixed people, since everywhere they are found to partake more or less of the physical and even mental character of the races among which we find them. The Jews of England, Holland and Germany are often of fair complexion, with blue eyes and fair hair. The Jews of Poland and Russia have the Slavonian type; and those of Spain and Portugal, the Iberian. The Jews of Persia are very like Persians; while the Jews of India are black, and not distinguishable, bodily or intellectually, from ordinary Hindus. The Jews of China are as yellow as any Chinese, and instead of aquiline, have snub noses. The two last, indeed, are only Jews by religion, and hardly more so by race than the Buddists of China and Japan are Hindus.

Wherever the Jews have intermixed with Asiatic races the result has been deterioration. Not so in Europe, for here they have neither undergone deterioration themselves, nor injured the race they have commingled with. Here we find them contending, on equal terms with the races among whom they are settled, in every pursuit open to their enterprise.

HAND-BOOK OF OVERLAND EXPEDITIONS.*

THIS valuable little book has just been re-printed in this country, and its merits are so great that no traveller should be without it. Captain Burton has edited this edition, and much enhanced its value with some notes. The editor very modestly says:

"I have been induced to re-edit it, at the instance of my friend

The Prairie Traveller; a Hand-book for Overland Expeditions, with illustrations and itineraries of the principal routes between the Mississippi and the Pacific, and a map. By Randolph B. Marcy, Captain U. S. Army, (now General Marcy, Chief of Staff, ariny of the Potomac). Edited (with notes) by Richard F. Burton. Trübner & Co.

VOL. I.-NO. I.

L

Mr. Trübner-not by the vain expectation of improving upon 'a quarter of a century's experience in (American) frontier life,' and the work of an accomplished woodsman--but with the humble hope that a little collateral knowledge gathered in other lands, may add variety, and, perhaps, something of value to what is at present our best Handbook of Western Field Sports. When that late lamented institution,' the once United States, shall have passed away, and when, after this detestable and fratricidal war-the most disgraceful to human nature that civilization ever witnessed, the New World shall be restored to order and tranquillity, our shikaris will not forget, that a single fortnight of comfortable travel suffices to transport them from fallow-deer and pheasant-shooting to the haunts of the bison and the grizzly bear. There is little chance of these animals being 'improved off' the Prairies, or even of their becoming rare during the life-time of the present generation; those who love noble game may thus save themselves a journey to monotonous India, or to pestilential Africa." The editor also observes:

"Sad experience in the Crimea, proves that were the subject com. pulsorily rendered a part of military studies, it would contribute not a little to the efficiency of the service. Men would not then pine over 'green coffee,' with tons of bones lying around them waiting to become bonfires. They would not starve upon half-rations, nor reduce them to a quarter by injudicious management and an ignorance touching soup."

This is a subject of deep importance, and one which we hope will be kept before the notice of the authorities of this country. We cordially agree with the editor when he says "I would rather examine officers in the art of travel than 'put them through' Roman history, or even Latin.”

This work is not only valuable to the prairie traveller, but it will be found to be equally serviceable to all who are embarking on solitary or company expeditions. It should be also studied by all officers in the army, and even Volunteer officers would do well to see what can be learnt from it.

The name of the editor has stamped this book as an authority on travelling generally. We only wish that Captain Burton had given us more of his vast experience. When the notes do occur they are always valuable. The editor very judiciously says, "Tobacco and green tea are the prairie traveller's soothers and stimulants. Wine and spirits should be regarded as remedial agents." The book itself is a complete epitome of what a traveller ought to know respecting stores, clothing, arms, and sanitary arrangements. For particulars we must refer the reader to the book itself. In speaking of the civilization of Indians, General Marcy observes:

"The Indians of the Plains, notwithstanding the encomiums that

have been heaped upon their brethren who formerly occupied the Eastern States for their gratitude, have not, so far as I have observed, the most distant conception of that sentiment. You may confer numberless benefits upon them for years, and the more that is done for them the more they will expect. They do not seem to comprehend the motive which dictates an act of benevolence or charity, and they invariably attribute it to fear or the expectation of reward. When they make a present, it is with a view of getting more than its equivalent in return.'

On this statement the editor makes the following remark:

"Such is the morale of all savages. The battle of life, and the selection of species, compels every man to do unto his neighbour what he would not have his neighbour do unto him. The word ' gratitude' is not to be found in the dialects of the wild men. in Hindostan, it must be borrowed from Arabic or Persian. when trying to obtain an African equivalent for 'honest,' the nearest approach to it is one who does not steal.'"

General Marcy also observes:

Even

And

"I have never yet been able to discover that the Western wild tribes possessed any of those attributes which among civilized nations are regarded as virtues adorning the human character. They have yet to be taught the first rudiments of civilization, and they are at this time as far from any knowledge of Christianity, and as worthy subjects for missionary enterprise, as the most untutored natives of the South Sea Islands.

"The only way to made these merciless freebooters fear or respect the authority of our government is, when they misbehave, first of all to chastise them well by striking such a blow as will be felt for a long time, and thus show them that we are superior to them in war. They will then respect us much more than when their good-will is purchased with presents.

"The opinion of a friend of mine, who has passed the last twentyfive years of his life among the Indians of the Rocky Mountains, corroborates the opinions I have advanced upon this head; and although I do not endorse all of his sentiments, yet many of them are deduced from long and matured experience and critical observation. He says: "They are the most onsartainest varmints in all creation, and I reckon tha'r not mor'n half human; for you never seed a human, arter you'd fed and treated him to the best fixins in your lodge, jist turn round and steal all your horses, or ary other thing he could lay his hands on. No, not adzactly. He would feel kinder grateful, and ask you to spread a blanket in his lodge ef you ever passed that away. But the Injun he don't care shucks for you, and is ready to do you a heap of mischief as soon as he quits your feed. No, Cap.,' he continued, 'it's not the right way to give um presents to buy peace; but ef I war governor of these yeer United States, I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd invite um all to a big feast, and make b'lieve I wanted to have a big talk; and as soon as I got um all together, I'd pitch in and sculp about half of um, and then t'other half would be mighty

glad to make a peace that would stick. That's the way I'd make a treaty with the dog'ond, red-bellied varmints; and as sure as you're born, Cap., that's the only way.'

"I suggested to him the idea, that there would be a lack of good faith and honour in such a proceeding, and that it would be much more in accordance with my notions of fair dealing to meet them openly in the field, and there endeavour to punish them if they deserved it. To this he replied:

"Tain't no use to talk about honour with them, Cap.; they hain't got no such thing in um; and they won't show fair fight, any way you can fix it. Don't they kill and sculp a white man when-ar they get the better on him? The mean varmints, they'll never behave themselves until you give um a clean out and out licking. They can't onderstand white folk's ways, and they won't learn um; and ef you treat um decently, they think you are afeard. You may depend on't, Cap., the only way to treat Injuns is to thrash them well at first, then the balance will sorter take to you and behave themselves.""

We must leave the discussion as to the truth of these assertions until a future occasion.

The following note is by the editor:

Maugre some evidence to the contrary, I still believe that the North American Aborigen, like the Tasmanian and the Australian, is but a temporary denizen of the world who fails to succeed in the first struggle with nature. He is, like a wild animal, to be broken but not to be tamed; as the wolf can be taught to refrain from worrying, but cannot be made to act as a dog. In his wild state, the Indian falls before the white man. Settled and semi-civilized he dies of acute disease. He has virtually disappeared from the wide regions east of the Mississipi, and the same causes, still ceaselessly operating, point to his annihilation when the Prairie lands shall have become the grazing grounds of the Western World.

"It is a false sentimentalism that cannot look facts in the face; an unsound reverence that models Providence after its own fashion. The best and wisest book of this, or, perhaps, of any age-I allude to the Origin of Species,-which opens up the grandest views of life, is based upon a practical justification of the ways of eternal wisdom

to man."

We can hardly fancy that the gallant captain's admiration of Mr. Darwin's book will be conceded by even all anthropologists. But it is not a little significant that the man who has travelled more largely than any one else living should come to the conclusion that Mr. Darwin's work is "the best and wisest of books in this, or, perhaps, of any age." We would only observe, in the words of a popular essayist, "there will be some who think his language too vehement for good taste. Others will think burning words needed by the disease of our time." Without, however, entirely sharing Captain Burton's admira

tion of the Origin of Species, we still congratulate Mr. Darwin on having such an admirer. We also hope that such a man as Captain Burton will not be long allowed to remain buried at Fernando Po. He would be far more useful in England, assisting in training officers, travellers, and anthropologists, to be able to fulfil their respective duties as travellers and observers.

OWEN ON THE LIMBS OF THE GORILLA.*

THE first monograph of the present series of osteological comparisons of the bony framework of the anthropoïd apes with that of man was published in 1835* Professor Huxley † terms it "a memoir which by the accuracy of its descriptions, the carefulness of its comparisons, and the excellence of its figures, made an epoch in the history of our knowledge of the bony framework, not only of the chimpanzee, but of all the anthropoïd apes." Twenty-eight years afterwards, the series is complete, and the quarto volume of thirty-one pages and thirteen magnificent lithographic plates, which form the seventh and concluding part, is now before us. We shall extract a few of the more interesting passages, bearing upon the differences between the structure of man and the ape.

The proportions of the anterior extremity in the gorilla are here given in the greatest detail, and minute comparisons are given of the various separate bones. As regards the hinder extremity, Professor Owen says:

"The iliac portion of the os innominatum shows in the human species alone that degree of expansion and forward inflexion of its upper and anterior border occasioning the form that suggested the term pelvis or basin for the segment of the skeleton composed of the ossa innominata and sacrum. Every ape, until the gorilla became known to the anatomist, had presented an iliac bone, not only long and narrow, but flat or, if hollow, with the cavity directed backwards instead of forwards. Such is the strictly quadrumanous condition of the bone in the common chimpanzee (Troglodytes niger) as well as in the orang-utans and gibbons. In the gorilla the iliac bone, besides showing a greater relative breadth in proportion to its length than in the chimpanzee, has the upper and outer border a little bent forward,

"Osteological Contributions to the Natural History of the Anthropoid Apes." No. VII. Comparison of the Bones of the Limbs of the Troglodytes Gorilla. Troglodytes niger, and of different varieties of the Human Race; and on the general character of the skeleton of the Gorilla. By Professor Owen, F.R.S., F.Z.S., etc. -Transactions of the Zoological Society, 1862.

+ Man's Place in Nature, p. 20.