he wanted pen and paper. An internal voice asked "if he were willing to forgive those he had injured?" and he immediately answered in the affirmative. He expressed in writing a wish to see the minister of the "Christian" church and another neighbor with whom he had been on bad terms. Both came and treated the sufferer with kindness and sympathy; and then when he was reconciled with his brother men, he felt emboldened to approach God and offered up "unutterable prayer.” A prayer-meeting was held in Ansel Bourne's house, and he wrote saying he was determined thenceforth to be on the Lord's side. On November 11th, just two weeks from the time of his seizure, he was carried to the Christian chapel, and though unable to speak or hear, he endeavored to signify his altered feelings to the congregation by standing and holding up his hands. He also wrote a very touching message to be delivered for him by the minister. He was requested by the minister, after his second visit to the chapel, to stand up in the pulpit, and here suddenly his hearing returned-in his own words, "Every manner of sound that comes from the living things of nature broke upon his ears" .. his tongue was unloosed instantly, and he exclaimed, in the hearing of the whole congregation, "Glory to God and the Lamb forever!" It is needless to say that this scene, and the moving exhortation from the convert which followed, caused the deepest emotion in the congregation.

From that day onward, until the 17th of January, 1887, Ansel Bourne's faculties were unimpaired. But two weeks after the restoration of his speech and hearing in chapel, he had a "vision" which commanded him to "Settle your worldly business and go to work for me." This vision came back several times in the same night, and the result of all these experiences was that Ansel Bourne became an "evangelist," and for more than thirty years went about preaching, attending at revivals and performing strenuously all the offices of an unattached minister. At the wish of his second wife, whom he married in 1882, he gave up his itinerant preaching; and he thinks the distress of mind, caused by leaving what he considered the path of duty, may have led to the strange mental experiences which I have already described.-ALICE BODINGTON.

(To be Continued.)

A Match-Striking Bluejay.-The note in the November, 1895, NATURALIST, Concerning the striking of matches by one of the monkeys (Cebus) has just fallen under my notice.

It may interest the readers of the NATURALIST to know that a neighbor of mine once had a little bluejay (Cyanocitta cristata (Linn.)) which

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had acquired the same habit, but confined exclusively to the so-called parlor" or "popping" matches. I never knew how he acquired the habit-perhaps accidentally, by striking them with the beak or beating them against some hard substance as he did much of his food.

When given a match he always hopped to a chair-round and struck it almost directly downward, fulminate "end on," and if it did not explode at once his blows were repeated rapidly until it ignited. He would then drop it, spring away and watch it wonderingly while it burned. All matches about the house had to be kept from him. He knew them by their odor, and would tear open packages to get them out. On one occasion his mistress came in and found him with a box from which he had ignited nearly three dozen.

-JAMES NEWTON BASKETT.

Mexico, Mo.

ANTHROPOLOGY.1

Professor Holmes Studies of Aboriginal Archictecture in Yucatan.-Professor W. H. Holmes in his recent visit to the Islands on the east coast of Yucatan, the sites of Chichen Itza, Izamal and Uxmal and certain shell heaps, near Progreso (See Archeological Studies among the ancient cities of Mexico, by W. H. Holmes. Field Columbian Museum Publication 8. Chicago 1895) has presented us with a valuable and characteristically clear summary of the important architectural features of the Peninsular ruins.

Eschewing archaeological investigation in such directions as those of implements, pottery, metals, art, food, burial, etc., he fixes our attention upon the stones used in building, the manner of dressing and laying them and the purpose of completed structures. The details of this subject casually referred to by Charnay and Waldeck and in the unindexed pages of Stephens, are summed up to together with certain original observations and arranged in order, until we see the relationship, in purpose that characterizes the ruined structures in the region. No demonstration has yet been made as to the kind of tools used in carving the limestone of the facades and Professor Holmes like all previous travellers, leaves the question unanswered. Neither does he refer to Mr. McGuires' theory that the work was done with round hammerstones. But a block fortunately found at Chichen Itza, pecked on 1 This department is edited by H. C. Mercer, University of Pennsylvania.

the surface with a pointed instrument and lined off for edge dressing with a flat edged tool, is shown as an interesting illustration (Fig. 1) of

Fig. 1. Fragment of Stone from Chichen Itza, supposed to have been hewn by the ancient masons of Yucatan, the tools used are unknown, but we see the peckings of a pointed implement on the dressed side, and the long cuts of an edged tool along the upper margin.

the effect on stone of the kind of tool we are hunting for. Until we find the implement, however, we may believe on early Spanish authority, that hard copper was used, or imagine adzes and chisels of stone as we please, while we recognize with Professor Holmes the importance of ransacking the sites of quarries, where the innumerable blocks (20,000 carved on the facade of the "Governors House", at Uxmal alone) were procured. Happily chosen general observations give a clearness to the whole presentation, and the delightful yet confused and complex impression of the ruins left upon the mind by the accounts of travelers becomes simple in the colder light of Professor Holmes systematic observations. The reader continually thanks him as he would thank the compiler of an index to a work of many volumes. Such characteristic general features as the ignorance of a master principle of mason craft like joint binding, the feeble grasp of the

2 Captain Theobert Maler informed me in Ticul in 1895, that he had seen several such quarries.

facade upon the structure where no long stones project from the pudding like hearting within into the face, to clinch the crust to the mass, the V shape and consequent lack of catch of many of the facing

Eig. 2. Examples of Terraces and Pyramids, superstructures omitted. stones, are dwelt upon in order, and a series of sketches disposed to catch the attention and impress the memory, show the varying forms of tumuli, (Fig. 2) the generally rectangular ground plan of buildings, (Fig. 3) and the construction of the arch by the edging in of opposing walls.

A question of much interest is touched upon when Professor Holmes in the introduction, refers to the geological age of the rock floor of the region in question, since the chance for establishing conclusions in Yucatan as to man's existence in geologically ancient times diminishes according as we learn that the Peninsula was too long under water

to count as an early human foothold. My statement (See Hill Caves of Yucatan. Lippincott, Phila., 1895, p. 21) referring to the rocks of Yucatan as of Mesozic Age, is at variance with the recent observations of geologists, while Professor Holmes says on the other hand, (p. 18): "The massive beds of limestone of which the Peninsula is formed contain and are largely made up of the remains of the marine forms of life now flourishing, along the shores. Fossil shells obtained from the rocks in various parts of the country are all of living species and represent late Pliocene or early Plistocene times, thus possibly bringing the date of the elevation of Yucatan down somewhat near that of the reputed sinking of Atlantis, some eleven or twelve thousand years ago, or not far from the period that witnessed the oscillations attending the glacial period." Though true that the peninsular limestone is largely composed of existing marine forms we learn on

Fig. 2. Examples of Terraces and Pyramids, superstructures omitted. closer examination that it is not entirely so, and that the shells are not all modern. We find that the full list of age denoting fossil mollusca collected from the rocks of Yucatan by the expedition in 1891 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (See Geol. Researches in Yucatan, by Prof. Angelo Heilprin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 1891. p. 136) does not characterize the Yucatan rock as of Plistocene Age while the recent researches of geologists (Prof. J. W. Spencer makes the Niagara Gorge 32,000 years old) now tend to add to the antiquity of the Glacial Epoch. Professor Heilprin who conducted the Yucatan

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