“Recent explorations in Spain by two Belgian scientists, the Messrs. Siret, have resulted in some very interesting discoveries. Relics of a prehistoric race have been found in great abundance, ranging from the stone age to that of bronze and metals. These people buried their dead not only in stone graves or cells, but also in great jars of burnt clay, accompanied by pieces of pottery and other articles of use and value. This form of jar-burial is very widespread, and examples have been found from Japan to Peru. These relics are supposed to belong to that ancient race which lived in Europe previous to the Aryan immigration, the various branches of which are known as Iberians, Pelasgians, Ligurians, etc., according to the country in which they lived.
“Several skeletons were found adorned with silver and gold ornaments. One of the most remarkable is illustrated here. It is a female skull encircled by a band of silver, to which is attached a thin plate of the same metal. It is not known whether it was originally worn in the position as when found, or, as is most likely, had been accidentally displaced after burial. This skull was found in a cave near the station of Fuente-Alamo, where gold and silver are found in small quantities in the soil; and it is quite possible that in those ancient times the mining of the precious metals was a regular occupation of the inhabitants.”
Psychometric Description.—Mrs. Buchanan, describing the subject from this engraving, without seeing it or knowing what it represented, spoke as follows:
“This is far away; it is remains of some kind; remains of a human being, of a very remote type of female. Her surroundings were very rude. She was of a race of strong animal instincts—a large people. She seems something like a squaw. (What of their habitations?) They were very rude, as much like caves as anything. I think they lived in caves and rocks. They hunted and fished. Their weapons were of stones, but they had some kind of metal which they could hammer out. They dried their food in the sun—fishes and meats. They had very little agriculture. They had a process for making things they wanted for domestic use, and for weapons, as well as stone implements. They may have used the precious metals, not as money but for ornaments. It was not a numerous race, did not propagate fast. They have all died out. There is no vestige of them on the earth. They were a brown, dark colored race. Their heads were low and faces large; jaws prominent.”
Evidently this is not the race of which Mr. Murray speaks—neither Iberian nor Basque.
The Star-dust of the Universe.
The distinguished astronomer, Norman Lockyer, has lately read a paper before the Royal Society (London) under the title of a “Preliminary Note on the Spectra of the Meteorites,” which advances some of the boldest theories and suggestions ever offered concerning the Universe, which cannot fail to interest the readers of the Journal of Man.
According to Mr. Lockyer the meteors which we have been accustomed to consider trivial or incidental matters in planetary and stellar systems, no more important than the dust which the housewife raises from parlor and chamber, are really fundamental and basic elements of the Universe, capable of generating comets, planets, suns and stars.
If this idea can be entertained, meteors must be vastly more numerous than the world has supposed. Cosmical space, according to Mr. Lockyer, is filled with meteorites of various sizes, flying in many directions with enormous velocities and moving in certain orbits like larger bodies. Many observations have been made to determine the number of these meteorites. Dr. Schmidt, of Athens, in seventeen years of observation concluded that in a clear dark night an observer would see on an average fourteen an hour at one station. Other astronomers have calculated that if observations were made over the whole earth, ten thousand times as many would be seen as could be seen by a single observer. Calculating thus, it has been inferred that about 20,000,000 luminous meteors fall on the earth every twenty-four hours, besides the innumerable amount of minute bodies too small to be seen by telescopes—which some suppose to be twenty times as numerous as the visible.