n the value of which there is no need to dwell. As
to the dimensions, it is easy to judge of these, since the laborer
standing to the left of the spectator holds in his hand a meter
measure serving as a scale. It will suffice to state that the depth of
each tomb is about two meters, and that upon the lower part of three
of the parallelopipeds there exist pavements of crucial appearance.
Finally, nothing denoted externally the existence of these sarcophagi
jealously hidden from investigation according to a usage that is
established especially by the imprecations graven upon the basaltic
casket now preserved in the Museum of the Louvre, and which contained
the ashes of Eshmanazar, King of Sidon.

[Illustration: ANTHROPOID SARCOPHAGUS DISCOVERED AT CADIZ.]

Space is wanting to furnish ampler information. Our object is simply
to call attention to a zone which is somewhat neglected from a
scientific point of view, and which, however, seems as if it ought to
offer a valuable field of investigation to students of things Semitic,
among whom, as well known, our compatriots hold a rank apart, since it
is to them that falls the laborious and very honorable duty of
collecting and editing the inscriptions in Semitic languages.

On another hand, although in the beginning the sepulchers were taken
to pieces and carried away (two of them imperfectly reconstructed may
be seen in the garden of the Cadizian Museum), there will be an
opportunity of making prevail the system of maintaining _in situ_ the
various monuments that may hereafter be discovered. Thus only could
one, at a given moment, obtain an accurate idea of what the Phenician
necropolis of Cadiz was, and allow the structures that compose it to
preserve their imposing stamp of rustic indestructibility.

The excavation is being carried on at this very moment, and a bronze
statuette of an oriental god and various trinkets of more or less
value have just enriched the municipal collection. Let us hope, then,
as was recently predicted by Mr. Clermont Ganneau, of the Institute,
that some day or another some Semitic inscription will throw a last
ray of light upon the past, which is at present so imperfectly known,
of Phenician Cadiz.--_L'Illustration._

* * * * *

PREHISTORIC HORSE IN AMERICA.

_To the Editor of the Scientific American_:

Apropos to Professor Cope's remarks before the A.A.A.S. at Washington,
reported in SCIENTIFIC AMERICA